EXPOSITIONS   OF  HOLY  SCRIPTURE 


EXPOSITIONS  OF 
HOLY  SCRIPTURE 

ALEXANDER  MACLAREN,  D.  D.,  Litt.  D. 


EZEKIEL,  DANIEL,  AND 
THE  MINOR  PROPHETS 

/ 

A.nac\cLV-ev> 


HODDER  &  STOUGHTON 

NEW  YORK 

GEORGE  H.  DORAN  COMPANY 


CONTENTS 


THE  BOOK  OP  EZEKIEL 

Chambers  op  Imagery  (Ezekiel  viii.  12)  .  •  • 

A  Common  Mistake  and  Lame  Excuse  (Ezekiel  xii.  27) 

The  Holy  Nation  (Ezekiel  xxxvi.  25-38)   .  •  • 

The  Dry  Bones  and  the  Spirit  of  Life  (Ezekiel  xxxvii. 
1-14). 

The  River  of  Life  (Ezekiel  xlvii.  1)         •  •  • 


PAOB 

1 


10  ^ 
19 

26  v^ 
82    ' 


THE  BOOK  OF  DANIEL 

Youthful  Confessors  (Daniel  i.  8-21)       ,  » 

The  Image  and  the  Stone  (Daniel  ii.  36-49)  • 

Harmless  Fires  (Daniel  iii.  13-25)  .  • 

Mene,  Tekel,  Peres  (Daniel  v.  17-31)         •  • 

A  Tribute  from  Enemies  (Daniel  vi.  5)  ,  • 
Faith  Stopping  the  Mouths  of  Lions  (Daniel  vi.  16-28) 

A  New  Tsar's  Message  (Daniel  xii.  13)  ,  •  , 


40 

48 

<g)v 

62 

68 

(§> 
84 


VI 


CONTENTS 


HOSEA 
Thb  Valley  of  Achor  (Hosea  ii.  15)        • 
"^  '  Let  Him  Alone  '  (Hosea  iv.  17)    •  • 

•Physicians  of  no  Value'  (Hosea  v.  13,  R.V.) 
•  '  Fruit  which  is  Death  '  (Hosea  x.  1-15)  , 
Destruction  and  Help  (Hosea  xiii.  9)      • 
Israel  Returning  (Hosea  xiv.  1-9)  • 

The  Dew  and  the  Plants  (Hosea  xiv.  5,  6) 


PAGE 

04 
100 
108 
114 
122 
127 
184 


AMOS 
A  Pair  op  Friends  (Amos  iii.  3)  ,  • 

Smitten  in  Vain  (Amos  iv.  4-13)    .  * 

The  Sins  of  Society  (Amos  v.  4-15)  • 

^,  The  Carcass  and  the  Eagles  (Amos  vi.  1-8) 
BiPE  fob  Gathering  (Amos  viii.  1-14)      • 


143 
150 
157 
163 
169 


JONAH 
Guilty  Silence  and  its  Reward  (Jonah  i.  1-17) 
'  Lying  Vanities  '  (Jonah  ii.  8)       ,  •  • 

Threefold  Repentance  (Jonah  iii.  1-10)  .  ■ 


177 
184 
180 


CONTENTS  vii 

MICAH 

PAGB 

Is  THE  Spirit  op  the  Lord  Straitened  ?  (Micah  ii.  7)  .  197 

Christ  the  Breaker  (Micah  ii  13)  «  •  .  206 

As  God,  so  Worshipper  (Micah  iv.  5,  R.V.)         •  •  215 

♦  A  Dew  prom  the  Lord  '  (Micah  v,  7)      ,  •  •  220 

God's  Requirements  and  God's  Gift  (Micah  vi.  8)  •  230 

HABAKKUK 
The  Ideal  Devout  Life  (Habakkuk  iii.  19)  ,  •        238 

ZEPHANIAH 
Zion's  Joy  and  God's  (Zephaniah  iii.  14,  17)  •  •         245 

HAGGAI 
Vain  Toil  (Haggai  i.  6)       •  .  .  •  ,249  ^^'^ 

Brave  Encouragements  (Haggai  ii.  1-9)  ,  ,  ,257 

ZECHARIAH 
Dying  Men  and  the  Undying  Word  (Zechariah  i.  5,  6)  264 

The  City  without  Walls  (Zechariah  ii.  4,  5)      ,  ,         273  ~ 

A  Vision  op  Judgment  and  Cleansing  (Zechariah  iii.  1-10)        280 


MAS 

287 


viii  CONTENTS 

The  Right  of  Entrt  (Zechariah  iii.  7)      ,  • 

The  Source  of  Power  (Zechariah  iv.  1-10)  •  •         2B4 

The  Founder  and  Finisher  of  the  Temple  (Zechariah 

iv.  9)  .  .  .  .  .  .301 

The  Priest  of  the  World  and  King  op  Men  (Zecha- 
riah vi.  13)    .  •  •  •  •  •         300 

MALACHI 

A  Dialogue  with  God  (Malachi  i.  6,  7)    ,  •  •  823 

Blemished  Offerings  (Malachi  i.  8)  •  •  «  328 

A  Dialogue  with  God  (Malachi  ii.  12,  14,  R.V.)  .  ,  337 

The  Last  Word  of  Prophecy  (Malachi  iii.  1-12)  •  342 

.'    The  Unchanging  Lord  (Malachi  iii.  G)     ,  ,  •  349 

A  Dialogue  with  God  (Malachi  iii.  7,  R.V.)        •  •  354 

'Stout  Words,'  and  their    Confutation  (Malachi  iii. 

13-18 ;  iv.  1-6)  ....  .         357 

The  Last  Words  of  the  Old  and  New  Testaments 

(Malachi  iv.  6 ;  Revelation  xxii.  21)  ,  •  •         863 


THE    BOOK    OF   EZEKIEL 

CHAMBERS  OF  IMAGERY 

'Then  said  He  unto  me.  Son  of  man,  hast  thou  seen  what  the  ancients  of  the 
house  of  Israel  do  in  the  dark,  every  man  in  the  chambers  of  his  imagery !  '— 
EzEKiEL  viii.  12. 

This  is  part  of  a  vision  which  came  to  the  prophet  in 
his  captivity.  He  is  carried  away  in  imagination  from 
his  home  amongst  the  exiles  in  the  East  to  the  Temple 
of  Jerusalem,  There  he  sees  in  one  dreadful  series 
representations  of  all  the  forms  of  idolatry  to  which 
the  handful  that  were  left  in  the  land  were  cleaving. 
There  meets  him  on  the  threshold  of  the  court  'the 
image  of  jealousy,'  the  generalised  expression  for  the 
aggregate  of  idolatries  which  had  stirred  the  anger  of 
the  divine  husband  of  the  nation.  Then  he  sees  within 
the  Temple  three  groups  representing  the  idolatries  of 
three  different  lands.  First,  those  with  whom  my  text 
is  concerned,  who,  in  some  underground  room,  vaulted 
and  windowless,  were  bowing  down  before  painted 
animal  forms  upon  the  walls.  Probably  they  were  the 
representatives  of  Egyptian  worship,  for  the  description 
of  their  temple  might  have  been  taken  out  of  any  book 
of  travels  in  Egypt  in  the  present  day.  It  is  only  an 
ideal  picture  that  is  represented  to  Ezekiel,  and  not  a 
real  fact.  It  is  not  at  all  probable  that  all  these  various 
forms  of  idolatry  were  found  at  any  time  within  the 
Temple  itself.  And  the  whole  cast  of  the  vision  suggests 
that  it  is  an  ideal  picture,  and  not  reality,  with  which 
we  have  to  do.    Hence  the  number  of  these  idolaters 

A 


2  THE  BOOK  OF  EZEKIEL    [cn.vm. 

was  seventy — the  successors  of  the  seventy  whom 
Moses  led  up  to  Sinai  to  see  the  God  of  Israel !  And 
now  here  they  are  grovelling  before  brute  forms  painted 
on  the  walls  in  a  hole  in  the  dark.  Their  leader  bears 
a  name  which  might  have  startled  them  in  their  apos- 
tasy, and  choked  their  prayers  in  their  throats,  for 
Jaazan-iah  means  '  the  Lord  hears.'  Each  man  has  a 
censer  in  his  hand  —  self-consecrated  priests  of  self- 
chosen  deities.  Shrouded  in  obscurity,  they  pleased 
themselves  with  the  ancient  lie,  'The  Lord  sees  not; 
He  hath  forsaken  the  earth.'  And  then,  into  that  San- 
hedrim of  apostates  there  comes,  all  unknown  to  them, 
the  light  of  God's  presence ;  and  the  eye  of  the  prophet 
marks  their  evil. 

I  have  nothing  to  do  here  with  the  other  groups  which 
Ezekiel  saw  in  his  vision.  The  next  set  were  the  repre- 
sentatives of  the  women  of  Israel,  who,  false  at  once  to 
their  womanhood  and  to  their  God,  were  taking  part  in 
the  nameless  obscenities  and  abominations  of  the  wor- 
ship of  the  Syrian  Adonis.  And  the  next,  who  from 
their  numbers  seem  to  be  intended  to  stand  for  the 
representatives  of  the  priesthood,  as  the  former  were 
of  the  whole  people,  represent  the  worshippers  who  had 
fallen  under  the  fascinations  of  a  widespread  Eastern 
idolatry,  and  with  their  backs  to  the  house  of  the  Lord 
were  bowing  before  the  rising  sun. 

All  these  false  faiths  got  on  very  well  together.  Their 
worshippers  bad  no  quarrel  with  each  other.  Poly- 
theism, by  its  very  nature  and  the  necessity  of  its 
being,  is  tolerant.  All  its  rabble  of  gods  have  a  mutual 
understanding,  and  are  banded  together  against  the 
only  One  that  says,  *  Thou  shalt  have  none  other  gods 
beside  Me.' 

But  now,  I  take  this  vision  in  a  meaning  which  the 


V.  12]         CHAMBERS  OF  IMAGERY  3 

prophet  had  no  intention  to  put  on  it.  I  do  not  often 
do  that  with  my  texts,  and  when  I  do  I  like  to  confess 
frankly  that  I  am  doing  it.  So  I  take  the  words  now 
as  a  kind  of  symbol  which  may  help  to  put  into  a 
picturesque  and  more  striking  form  some  very  familiar 
and  homely  truths.  Look  at  that  dark-painted  cham- 
ber that  we  have  all  of  us  got  in  our  hearts;  at  the 
idolatries  that  go  on  there,  and  at  the  flashing  of  the 
sudden  light  of  God  who  marks,  into  the  midst  of  the 
idolatry.  'Hast  thovi  seen  what  the  ancients  of  the 
children  of  Israel  do  in  the  dark,  each  man  in  the 
chambers  of  his  imagery  ? ' 

I.  Think  of  the  dark  and  painted  chamber  which  we 
all  of  us  carry  in  our  hearts. 

Every  man  is  a  mystery  to  himself  as  to  his  fellows. 
With  reverence,  we  may  say  of  each  other  as  we  say  of 
God — 'Clouds  and  darkness  are  round  about  Him.'  After 
all  the  manifestations  of  a  life,  we  remain  enigmas  to 
one  another  and  mysteries  to  ourselves.  For  every  man 
is  no  fixed  somewhat,  but  a  growing  personality,  with 
dormant  possibilities  of  good  and  evil  lying  in  him,  which 
up  to  the  very  last  moment  of  his  life  may  flame  up  into 
altogether  unexpected  and  astonishing  developments. 
Therefore  we  have  all  to  feel  that  after  all  self-exam- 
ination there  lie  awful  depths  within  us  which  we  have 
not  fathomed;  and  after  all  our  knowledge  of  one 
another  we  yet  do  see  but  the  surface,  and  each  soul 
dwells  alone. 

There  is  in  every  heart  a  dark  chamber.  Oh,  brethren! 
there  are  very,  very  few  of  us  that  dare  tell  all  our 
thoughts  and  show  our  inmost  selves  to  our  dearest 
ones.  The  most  silvery  lake  that  lies  sleeping  amidst 
beauty,  itself  the  very  fairest  spot  of  all,  when  drained 
off  shows  ugly  ooze  and  filthy  mud,  and  all  manner  of 


4  THE  BOOK  OF  EZEKIEL    [ch.  viii. 

creeping  abominations  in  the  slime.  I  wonder  what  we 
should  see  if  our  hearts  were,  so  to  speak,  drained  off, 
and  the  very  bottom  layer  of  every  thing  brought  into 
the  light.  Do  you  think  you  could  stand  it?  Well, 
then,  go  to  God  and  ask  Him  to  keep  you  from  uncon- 
scious sins.  Go  to  Him  raid  ask  Him  to  root  out  of  you 
the  mischiefs  that  you  do  not  know  are  there,  and  live 
humbly  and  self-distrustf ully,  and  feel  that  your  only 
strength  is :  '  Hold  Thou  me  up,  and  I  shall  be  saved.* 
'  Hast  thou  seen  what  they  do  in  the  dark  ? ' 

Still  further,  we  may  take  another  part  of  this  descrip- 
tion with  possibly  permissible  violence  as  a  symbol  of 
another  characteristic  of  our  inward  nature.  The  walls 
of  that  chamber  were  all  painted  with  animal  forms, 
to  which  these  men  were  bowing  down.  By  our  memory, 
and  by  that  marvellous  faculty  that  people  call  the 
imagination,  and  by  our  desires,  we  are  for  ever  paint- 
ing the  walls  of  the  inmost  chambers  of  our  hearts 
with  such  pictures.  That  is  an  awful  power  which  we 
possess,  and,  alas !  too  often  use  for  foul  idolatries. 

I  do  not  dwell  upon  that,  but  I  wish  to  drop  one  very 
earnest  caution  and  beseeching  entreaty,  especially  to 
the  younger  members  of  my  congregation  now.  You, 
young  men  and  women,  especially  you  young  men, 
mind  what  you  paint  upon  those  mystic  walls !  Foul 
things,  as  my  text  says,  'creeping  things  and  abomin- 
able beasts,'  only  too  many  of  you  are  tracing  there. 
Take  care,  for  these  figures  are  ineffaceable.  No  repent- 
ance will  obliterate  them.  I  do  not  know  whether 
even  Heaven  can  blot  them  out.  What  you  love,  what 
you  desire,  what  you  think  about,  you  are  photograph- 
ing on  the  walls  of  your  immortal  soul.  And  just  as 
to-day,  thousands  of  years  after  the  artists  have  been 
gathered  to  the  dust,  we  may  go  into  Egyptian  temples 


V.12]         CHAMBERS  OF  IMAGERY  5 

and  see  the  figures  on  their  walls,  in  all  the  freshness 
of  their  first  colouring,  as  if  the  painter  had  but  laid 
down  his  pencil  a  moment  ago;  so,  on  your  hearts, 
youthful  evils,  the  sins  of  your  boyhood,  the  pruriences 
of  your  earliest  days,  may  live  in  ugly  shapes,  that  no 
tears  and  no  repentance  will  ever  wipe  out.  Nothing 
can  do  away  with  '  the  marks  of  that  which  once  hath 
been.'  What  are  you  painting  on  the  chambers  of 
imagery  in  your  hearts  ?  Obscenity,  foul  things,  mean 
things,  low  things  ?  Is  that  mystic  shrine  within  you 
painted  with  such  figures  as  were  laid  bare  in  some 
chambers  in  Pompeii,  where  the  excavators  had  to 
cover  up  the  pictures  because  they  were  so  foul  ?  Or, 
is  it  like  the  cells  in  the  convent  of  San  Marco  at  Flor- 
ence, where  Fra  Angelico's  holy  and  sweet  genius  has 
left  on  the  bare  walls,  to  be  looked  at,  as  he  fancied, 
only  by  one  devout  brother  in  each  cell,  angel  imagin- 
ings, and  noble,  pure  celestial  faces  that  calm  and 
hallow  those  who  gaze  upon  them?  What  are  you 
doing,  my  brother,  in  the  dark,  in  your  chambers  of 
imagery  ? 

II.  Now  look  with  me  briefly  at  the  second  thought 
that  I  draw  from  this  symbol, — the  idolatries  of  the 
dark  chamber. 

All  these  seventy  grey-bearded  elders  that  were  bow- 
ing there  before  the  bestial  gods  which  they  had  por- 
trayed, had,  no  doubt,  often  stood  in  the  courts  of  the 
Temple  and  there  made  prayers  to  the  God  of  Israel, 
with  broad  phylacteries,  to  be  seen  of  men.  Their  true 
worship  was  their  worship  in  the  dark.  The  other  was 
conscious  or  unconscious  hypocrisy.  And  the  very 
chamber  in  which  they  were  gathered,  according  to  the 
ideal  representation  of  our  text,  was  a  chamber  in,  and 
therefore  partaking  of  the  consecration  of,  the  Temple, 


6  THE  BOOK  OF  EZEKIEL    [ch.viii. 

So  their  worship  was  doubly  criminal,  in  that  it  was 
sacrilege  as  well  as  idolatry.  Both  things  are  true 
about  us. 

A  man's  true  worship  is  not  the  worship  which  he 
performs  in  the  public  temple,  but  that  which  he  offers 
down  in  that  little  private  chapel,  where  nobody  goes 
but  himself.  Worship  is  the  attribution  of  supreme 
excellence  to,  and  the  entire  dependence  of  the  heart 
upon,  a  certain  person.  And  the  people  or  the  things 
to  which  a  man  attributes  the  highest  excellence,  and 
on  which  he  hangs  his  happiness  and  well-being,  these 
be  his  gods,  no  matter  what  his  outward  profession  is. 
You  can  find  out  what  these  are  for  you,  if  you  will  ask 
yourself,  and  honestly  answer,  one  or  two  questions. 
What  is  that  I  want  most  ?  What  is  it  which  makes 
my  ideal  of  happiness  ?  What  is  that  which  I  feel  that 
I  should  be  desperate  without  ?  What  do  I  think  about 
most  naturally  and  spontaneously,  when  the  spring  is 
taken  off,  and  my  thoughts  are  allowed  to  go  as  they 
will  ?  And  if  the  answer  to  none  of  these  questions  is 
'  God ! '  then  I  do  not  know  w^hy  you  should  call  your- 
self a  worshipper  of  God.  It  is  of  no  avail  that  we 
pray  in  the  temple,  if  we  have  a  dark  underground 
shrine  where  our  true  adoration  is  rendered. 

Oh,  dear  brethren !  I  am  afraid  there  are  a  great  many 
of  us  nominal  Christians,  connected  with  Christian 
Churches,  posing  before  men  as  orthodox  religionists, 
who  keep  this  private  chapel  where  we  do  our  devotion 
to  an  idol  and  not  to  God.  If  our  real  gods  could  be 
made  visible,  what  a  pantheon  they  would  make !  All 
the  foul  forms  painted  on  that  cell  of  this  vision  would 
be  paralleled  in  the  creeping  things,  which  crawl  along 
the  low  earth  and  never  soar  nor  even  stand  erect,  and 
jn  the  vile,  bestial  forms  of  passion  to  which  some  of 


V.12]         CHAMBERS  OF  IMAGERY  7 

us  really  bow  down.  Honour,  wealth,  literary  or  other 
distinction,  the  sweet  sanctities  of  human  love  dis- 
honoured and  profaned  by  being  exalted  to  the  place 
which  divine  love  should  hold,  ease,  family,  animal 
appetites,  lust,  drink — these  are  the  gods  of  some  of  us. 
Bear  with  my  poor  words  and  ask  yourselves,  not  whom 
do  you  worship  before  the  eye  of  men,  but  who  is  the 
God  to  whom  in  your  inmost  heart  you  bow  down? 
What  do  you  do  in  the  dark?  That  is  the  question. 
Whom  do  you  worship  there  ?  Your  other  worship  is 
not  worship  at  all. 

Do  not  forget  that  all  such  diversion  of  supreme  love 
and  dependence  from  God  alone  is  like  the  sin  of  these 
men  in  our  text,  in  that  it  is  sacrilege.  They  had  taken 
a  chamber  in  the  very  Temple,  and  turned  it  into  a 
temple  of  the  false  gods.  Whom  is  your  heart  made  to 
enshrine  ?  Why !  every  stone,  if  I  may  so  say,  of  the 
fabric  of  our  being  bears  marked  upon  it  that  it  was  laid 
in  order  to  make  a  dwelling-place  for  God.  Whom  are 
you  meant  to  worship,  by  the  witness  of  the  very  con- 
stitution of  your  nature  and  make  of  your  spirits  ?  Is 
there  anybody  but  One  who  is  worthy  to  receive  the 
priceless  gift  of  human  love  absolute  and  entire?  Is 
there  any  but  One  to  whom  it  is  aught  but  degradation 
and  blasphemy  for  a  man  to  bow  down  ?  Is  there  any 
being  but  One  that  can  still  the  tumult  of  my  spirit, 
and  satisfy  the  immortal  yearnings  of  my  soul  ?  We 
were  made  for  God,  and  whensoever  we  turn  the  hopes, 
the  desires,  the  affections,  the  obedience,  and  that 
which  is  the  root  of  them  all,  the  confidence  that  ought 
to  fix  and  fasten  upon  Him,  to  other  creatures,  we 
are  guilty  not  only  of  idolatry  but  of  sacrilege.  We 
commit  the  sin  of  which  that  wild  reveller  in  Babylon 
was  guilty,  when,  at  his  great  feast,  in  the  very  mad- 


8  THE  BOOK  OF  EZEKIEL    [ch.viii. 

ness  of  his  presumption  he  bade  them  bring  forth  the 
sacred  vessels  from  the  Temple  at  Jerusalem ;  '  and  the 
king  and  his  princes  and  his  concubines  drank  in  them 
and  praised  the  gods.'  So  we  take  the  sacred  chalice 
of  the  human  heart,  on  which  there  is  marked  the  sign 
manual  of  Heaven,  claiming  it  for  God's,  and  fill  it 
with  the  spiced  and  drugged  draught  of  our  own  sen- 
sualities and  evils,  and  pour  out  libations  to  vain  and 
false  gods.  Brethren!  Render  unto  Him  that  which 
is  His ;  and  see  even  upon  the  walls  scrabbled  all  over 
with  the  deformities  that  we  have  painted  there, 
lingering  traces,  like  those  of  some  dropping  fresco 
in  a  roofless  Italian  church,  which  suggest  the  serene 
and  perfect  beauty  of  the  image  of  the  One  whose 
likeness  was  originally  traced  there,  and  for  whose 
worship  it  was  all  built. 

III.  And  now,  lastly,  look  at  the  sudden  crashing  in 
upon  the  cowering  worshippers  of  the  revealing  light. 
Apparently  the  picture  of  my  text  suggests  that 
these  elders  knew  not  the  eyes  that  were  looking 
upon  them.  They  were  hugging  themselves  in  the 
conceit,  *  the  Lord  seeth  not ;  the  Lord  hath  forsaken 
the  earth.'  And  all  the  while,  all  unknown,  God  and 
His  prophet  stand  in  the  doorway  and  see  it  all.  Not 
a  finger  is  lifted,  not  a  sign  to  the  foolish  worshippers 
of  His  presence  and  inspection,  but  in  stern  silence  He 
records  and  remembers. 

And  does  that  need  much  bending  to  make  it  an 
impressive  form  of  putting  a  solemn  truth?  There 
are  plenty  of  us— alas!  alas!  that  it  should  be  so— to 
whom  it  is  the  least  welcome  of  all  thoughts  that 
there  in  the  doorway  stand  God  and  His  Word.  Why 
should  it  be,  my  brother,  that  the  properly  blessed 
thought  of  a  divine  eye  resting  upon  you  should  be  to 


V.12]         CHAMBERS  OF  IMAGERY  9 

you  like  the  thought  of  a  policeman's  bull's-eye  to  a 
thief  ?  Why  should  it  not  be  rather  the  sweetest  and 
the  most  calming  and  strength-giving  of  all  convictions 
— *  Thou  God  seest  me '  ?  The  little  child  runs  about 
the  lawn  perfectly  happy  as  long  as  she  knows  that 
her  mother  is  watching  her  from  the  window.  And  it 
ought  to  be  sweet  and  blessed  to  each  of  us  to  know 
that  there  is  no  darkness  where  a  Father's  eye  comes 
not.  But  oh !  to  the  men  that  stand  before  bestial 
idols  and  have  turned  their  backs  on  the  beauty  of  the 
one  true  God,  the  only  possibility  of  composure  is  that 
they  shall  hug  themselves  in  the  vain  delusion  : — '  The 
Lord  seeth  not.' 

I  beseech  you,  dear  friends,  do  not  think  of  His  eye 
as  the  prisoner  in  a  cell  thinks  of  the  pin-hole  some- 
where in  the  wall,  through  which  a  jailer's  jealous  in- 
spection may  at  any  moment  be  glaring  in  upon  him, 
but  think  of  Him  your  Brother,  who  '  knew  what  was 
in  man,'  and  who  knows  each  man,  and  see  in  Christ 
the  all-knowing  Godhood  that  loves  yet  better  than  it 
knows,  and  beholds  the  hidden  evils  of  men's  hearts, 
in  order  that  it  may  cleanse  and  forgive  all  which  it 
beholds. 

One  day  a  light  will  flash  in  upon  all  the  dark  cells. 
We  must  all  be  manifest  before  the  judgment-seat  of 
Christ.  Do  you  like  that  thought  ?  Can  you  stand  it  ? 
Are  you  ready  for  it?  My  friend!  let  Jesus  Christ 
come  to  you  with  His  light.  Let  Him  come  into  the 
dark  corners  of  your  hearts.  Cast  all  your  sinfulness, 
known  and  unknown,  upon  Him  that  died  on  the  Cross 
for  every  soul  of  man,  and  He  will  come;  and  His 
light,  streaming  into  your  hearts,  like  the  sunbeam 
upon  foul  garments,  will  cleanse  and  bleach  them 
white  by  its  shining  upon  them.    Let  Him  come  into 


10  THE  BOOK  OF  EZEKIEL     [ch.  xii. 

your  hearts  by  your  lowly  penitence,  by  your  humble 
faith,  and  all  these  vile  shapes  that  you  have  painted 
on  its  walls  will,  like  phosphorescent  pictures  in  the 
daytime, pale  and  disappear  when  the  'Sun  of  Righteous- 
ness, with  healing  in  His  beams,  floods  your  soul, 
leaving  no  part  dark,  and  turning  all  into  a  temple 
of  the  living  God.' 


A  COMMON  MISTAKE  AND  LAME  EXCUSE 

* ...  He  prophesieth  of  the  times  that  are  far  off.'— EzEEntBL  zil.  27. 

Human  nature  was  very  much  the  same  in  the  exiles 
that  listened  to  Ezekiel  on  the  banks  of  the  Chebar 
and  in  Manchester  to-day.  The  same  neglect  of  God's 
message  was  grounded  then  on  the  same  misappre- 
hension of  its  bearings  which  profoundly  operates  in 
the  case  of  many  people  now.  Ezekiel  had  been  pro- 
claiming the  fall  of  Jerusalem  to  the  exiles  whose 
captivity  preceded  it  by  a  few  years ;  and  he  was  con- 
fronted by  the  incredulity  which  fancied  that  it  had  a 
great  many  facts  to  support  it,  and  so  it  generalised 
God's  long-sufiPering  delay  in  sending  the  threatened 
punishment  into  a  scoffing  proverb  which  said,  '  The 
days  are  prolonged,  and  every  vision  faileth.'  To 
translate  it  into  plain  English,  the  prophets  had  cried 
'  Wolf !  wolf ! '  so  long  that  their  alarms  were  dis- 
believed altogether. 

Even  the  people  that  did  not  go  the  length  of  utter 
unbelief  in  the  prophetic  threatening  took  the  com- 
fortable conclusion  that  these  threatenings  had  refer- 
ence to  a  future  date,  and  they  need  not  trouble 
themselves  about  them.  And  so  they  said,  according 
to  my  text,   'They  of  the  house  of  Israel  say,  The 


V.27]  A  COMMON  MISTAKE  11 

vision  that  he  sees  is  for  many  days  to  come,  and  he 
prophesieth  of  the  times  that  are  far  off.'  *  It  may  be 
all  quite  true,  but  it  lies  away  in  the  distant  future 
there;  and  things  will  last  our  time,  so  we  do  not 
need  to  bother  ourselves  about  what  he  says.' 

So  the  imagined  distance  of  fulfilment  turned  the 
edge  of  the  plainest  denunciations,  and  was  like  wool 
stuffed  in  the  people's  ears  to  deaden  the  reverbera- 
tions of  the  thunder. 

I  wonder  if  there  is  anybody  here  now  whom  that 
fits,  who  meets  the  preaching  of  the  gospel  with  a 
shrug,  and  with  this  saying,  'He  prophesies  of  the 
times  that  are  far  off.'  I  fancy  that  there  are  a  few ;  and 
I  wish  to  say  a  word  or  two  about  this  ground  on 
which  the  widespread  disregard  of  the  divine  message 
is  based. 

I.  First,  then,  notice  that  the  saying  of  my  text — 
in  the  application  which  I  now  seek  to  make  of  it — is  a 
truth,  but  it  is  only  half  a  truth. 

Of  course,  Ezekiel  was  speaking  simply  about  the 
destruction  of  Jerusalem.  If  it  had  been  true,  as  his 
hearers  assumed,  that  that  was  not  going  to  happen 
for  a  good  many  years  yet,  the  chances  were  that  it 
had  no  bearing  upon  them,  and  they  were  right 
enough  in  neglecting  the  teaching.  And,  of  course, 
when  I  apply  such  a  word  as  this  in  the  direction  in 
which  I  wish  to  do  now,  we  do  bring  in  a  different  set 
of  thoughts;  but  the  main  idea  remains  the  same. 
The  neglect  of  God's  solemn  message  by  a  great  many 
people  is  based,  more  or  less  consciously,  upon  the 
notion  that  the  message  of  Christianity — or,  if  you  like 
to  call  it  so,  of  the  gospel;  or,  if  you  like  to  call  it 
more  vaguely,  religion — has  to  do  mainly  with  bless- 
ings and  woes  beyond  the  grave,  and  that  there  is 


12  THE  BOOK  OF  EZEKIEL      [ch.xii. 

plenty  of  time  to  attend  to  it  when  we  get  nearer  the 
end. 

Now  is  it  true  that  '  he  prophesies  of  times  that  are 
far  off '  ?  Yes  !  and  No !  Yes  !  it  is  true,  and  it  is  the 
great  glory  of  Christianity  that  it  shifts  the  centre  of 
gravity,  so  to  speak,  from  this  poor,  transient,  con- 
temptible present,  and  sets  it  away  out  yonder  in  an 
august  and  infinite  future.  It  brings  to  us  not  only 
knowledge  of  the  future,  but  certitude,  and  takes  the 
conception  of  another  life  out  of  the  region  of  per- 
hapses,  possibilities,  dreads,  or  hopes,  as  the  case  may 
be,  and  sets  it  in  the  sunlight  of  certainty.  There  is 
no  more  mist.  Other  faiths,  even  when  they  have 
risen  to  the  height  of  some  contemplation  of  a  future, 
have  always  seen  it  wrapped  in  nebulous  clouds  of 
possibilities,  but  Christianity  sets  it  clear,  definite, 
solid,  as  certain  as  yesterday,  as  certain  as  to-day. 

It  not  only  gives  us  the  knowledge  and  the  certitude 
of  the  times  that  are  afar  off,  and  that  are  not  times 
but  eternities,  but  it  gives  us,  as  the  all-important 
element  in  that  future,  that  its  ruling  characteristic 
is  retribution.  It  'brings  life  and  immortality  to 
light,'  and  just  because  it  does,  it  brings  the  dark  orb 
which,  like  some  of  the  double  stars  in  the  heavens,  is 
knit  to  the  radiant  sphere  by  a  necessary  band.  It 
brings  to  light,  with  life  and  immortality,  death  and 
woe.  It  is  true — '  he  prophesies  of  times  that  are  far 
off,'  and  it  is  the  glory  of  the  gospel  of  Christ's  revela- 
tion, and  of  the  religion  that  is  based  thereon,  that  its 
centre  is  beyond  the  grave,  and  that  its  eye  is  so  often 
turned  to  the  clearly  discerned  facts  that  lie  there. 

But  is  that  all  that  we  have  to  say  about  Christianity  ? 
Many  representations  of  it,  I  am  free  to  confess,  from 
pulpits  and  books  and  elsewhere,  do  talk  as  if  that  was 


V.  27]  A  COMMON  MISTAKE  13 

all,  as  if  it  was  a  magnificent  thing  to  have  when  you 
came  to  die.  As  the  play  has  it,  *  I  said  to  him  that  I 
hoped  there  was  no  need  that  he  should  think  about 
God  yet,'  because  he  was  not  going  to  die.  But  I  urge 
you  to  remember,  dear  brethren,  that  all  that  pro- 
phesying of  times  that  are  far  off  has  the  closest  bearing 
upon  this  transient,  throbbing  moment,  because,  for  one 
thing,  one  solemn  part  of  the  Christian  revelation  about 
the  future  is  that  Time  is  the  parent  of  Eternity,  and 
that,  in  like  manner  as  in  our  earthly  course  '  the  child 
is  father  of  the  man,'  so  the  man  as  he  has  made  him- 
self is  the  author  of  himself  as  he  will  be  through  the 
infinite  spaces  that  lie  beyond  the  grave.  Therefore, 
when  a  Christian  preacher  prophesies  of  times  that  are 
afar  off,  he  is  prophesying  of  present  time,  between 
which  and  the  most  distant  eternity  there  is  an  iron 
nexus — a  band  which  cannot  be  broken. 

Nor  is  that  all.  Not  only  is  the  truth  in  my  text  but 
a  half  truth,  if  it  is  supposed  that  the  main  business  of 
the  gospel  is  to  talk  to  us  about  heaven  and  hell,  and 
not  about  the  earth  on  which  we  secure  and  procure 
the  one  or  the  other ;  but  also  it  is  a  half  truth  because, 
large  and  transcendent,  eternal  in  their  duration,  and 
blessed  beyond  all  thought  in  their  sweetness  as  are 
the  possibilities,  the  certainties  that  are  opened  by  the 
risen  and  ascended  Christ,  and  tremendous  beyond  all 
words  that  men  can  speak  as  are  the  alternative  possi- 
bilities, yet  these  are  not  all  the  contents  of  the  gospel 
message;  but  those  blessings  and  penalties,  joys  and 
miseries,  exaltations  and  degradations,  which  attend 
upon  righteousness  and  sin,  godliness  and  irreligion 
to-day  are  a  large  part  of  its  theme  and  of  its  effects. 
Therefore,  whilst  on  the  one  hand  it  is  true,  blessed  be 
Christ's  name!  that  *he  prophesies  of  times  that  are 


U  THE  BOOK  OF  EZEKIEL     [ch.xii. 

far  oS';  on  the  other  hand  it  is  an  altogether  inade- 
quate description  of  the  gospel  message  and  of  the 
Christian  body  of  truth  to  say  that  the  future  is  its 
realm,  and  not  the  present. 

II.  So,  then,  in  the  second  place,  my  text  gives  a  very 
good  reason  for  prizing  and  attending  to  the  prophecy. 

If  it  is  true  that  God,  speaking  through  the  facts  of 
Christ's  death  and  Resurrection  and  Ascension,  has 
given  to  us  the  sure  and  certain  hope  of  immortality, 
and  has  declared  to  us  plainly  the  conditions  upon 
vrhich  that  immortality  may  be  ours,  and  the  woful 
loss  and  eclipse  into  the  shadow  of  which  we  shall 
stumble  darkling  if  it  is  not  ours,  then  surely  that  is 
a  reason  for  prizing  and  laying  to  heart,  and  living 
by  the  revelation  so  mercifully  made.  People  do  not 
usually  kick  over  their  telescopes,  and  neglect  to  look 
through  them,  because  they  are  so  powerful  that  they 
show  them  the  craters  in  the  moon  and  turn  faint 
specks  into  blazing  suns.  People  do  not  usually  neglect 
a  word  of  warning  or  guidance  in  reference  to  the 
ordering  of  their  earthly  lives  because  it  is  so  compre- 
hensive, and  covers  so  large  a  ground,  and  is  so  certain 
and  absolutely  true.  Surely  there  can  be  no  greater 
sign  of  divine  loving-kindness,  of  a  Saviour's  tender- 
ness and  care  for  us,  than  that  He  should  come  to  each 
of  us,  as  He  does  come,  and  say  to  each  of  us,  '  Thou 
art  to  live  for  ever ;  and  if  thou  wilt  take  Me  for  thy 
Life,  thou  shalt  live  for  ever,  blessed,  calm,  and  pure.' 
And  we  listen,  and  say,  'He  prophesies  of  times  that 
are  far  off ! '  Oh !  is  that  not  rather  a  reason  for  coming 
very  close  to,  and  for  grappling  to  our  hearts  and 
living  always  by  the  power  of,  that  great  revelation  ? 
Surely  to  announce  the  consequences  of  evil,  and  to 
announce  them  so  long  beforehand  that  there  is  plenty 


y.27]  A  COMMON  MISTAKE  15 

of  time  to  avoid  them  and  to  falsify  the  prediction,  is 
the  token  of  love. 

Now  I  wish  to  lay  it  on  the  hearts  of  you  people  who 
call  yourselves  Christians,  and  who  are  so  in  some 
imperfect  degree,  whether  we  do  at  all  adequately 
regard,  remember,  and  live  by  this  great  mercy  of  God, 
that  He  should  have  prophesied  to  us  *  of  the  times  that 
are  far  off.'  Perhaps  I  am  wrong,  but  I  cannot  help 
feeling  that,  for  this  generation,  the  glories  of  the 
future  rest  with  God  have  been  somewhat  paled,  and 
the  terrors  of  the  future  unrest  away  from  God  have 
been  somewhat  lightened.  I  hope  I  am  wrong,  but  I 
do  not  think  that  the  modern  average  Christian  thinks 
as  much  about  heaven  as  his  father  did.  And  I  believe 
that  his  religion  has  lost  something  of  its  buoyancy, 
of  its  power,  of  its  restraining  and  stimulating  energy, 
because,  from  a  variety  of  reasons,  the  bias  of  this 
generation  is  rather  to  dwell  upon,  and  to  realise,  the 
present  social  blessings  of  Christianity  than  to  project 
itself  into  that  august  future.  The  reaction  may  be 
good.  I  have  no  doubt  it  was  needed,  but  I  think  it 
has  gone  rather  too  far,  and  I  would  beseech  Chris- 
tian men  and  women  to  try  and  deserve  more  the 
sarcasm  that  is  flung  at  us  that  we  live  for  another 
world.  Would  God  it  were  true — truer  than  it  is ! 
We  should  see  better  work  done  in  this  world  if  it 
were.  So  I  say,  that  '  he  prophesieth  of  times  that 
are  far  off'  is  a  good  reason  for  prizing  and  obeying 
the  prophet. 

III.  Lastly,  this  is  a  very  common  and  a  very  bad 
reason  for  neglecting  the  prophecy. 

It  does  operate  as  a  reason  for  giving  little  heed  to 
the  prophet,  as  I  have  been  saying.  In  the  old  men-of- 
war,  when  an  engagement  was  impending,  they  used 


16  THE  BOOK  OF  EZEKIEL     [ch.  xii. 

to  bring  up  the  hammocks  from  the  bunks  and  pile 
them  into  the  nettings  at  the  side  of  the  ship,  to  defend 
it  from  boarders  and  bullets.  And  then,  after  these 
had  served  their  purpose  of  repelling,  they  were  taken 
down  again  and  the  crew  went  to  sleep  upon  them. 
That  is  exactly  what  some  of  my  friends  do  with  that 
misconception  of  the  genius  of  Christianity  which 
supposes  that  it  is  concerned  mainly  with  another 
world.  They  put  it  up  as  a  screen  between  them  and 
God,  between  them  and  what  they  know  to  be  their 
duty — viz.,  the  acceptance  of  Christ  as  their  Saviour. 
It  is  their  hammock  that  they  put  between  the  bullets 
and  themselves ;  and  many  a  good  sleep  they  get 
upon  it ! 

Now,  that  strange  capacity  that  men  have  of  ignoring 
a  certain  future  is  seen  at  work  all  round  about  us  in 
every  region  of  life.  I  wonder  how  many  young  men 
there  are  in  Manchester  to-day  that  have  begun  to  put 
their  foot  upon  the  wrong  road,  and  who  know  just 
as  well  as  I  do  that  the  end  of  it  is  disease,  blasted 
reputation,  ruined  prospects,  perhaps  an  early  death. 
Why !  there  is  not  a  drunkard  in  the  city  that  does  not 
know  that.  Every  man  that  takes  opium  knows  it. 
Every  unclean,  unchaste  liver  knows  it;  and  yet  he 
can  hide  the  thought  from  himself,  and  go  straight  on 
as  if  there  was  nothing  at  all  of  the  sort  within  the 
horizon  of  possibility.  It  is  one  of  the  most  marvellous 
things  that  men  have  that  power ;  only  beaten  by  the 
marvel  that,  having  it,  they  should  be  such  fools  as  to 
choose  to  exercise  it.  The  peasants  on  the  slopes  of 
Vesuvius  live  very  careless  lives,  and  they  have  their 
little  vineyards  and  their  olives.  Yes,  and  every  morn- 
ing when  they  come  out,  they  can  look  up  and  see  the 
thin  wreath  of  smoke  going  up  in  the  dazzling  blue, 


V.  27]  A  COMMON  MISTAKE  17 

and  they  know  that  some  time  or  other  there  will  be  a 
roar  and  a  rush,  and  down  will  come  the  lava.  But '  a 
short  life  and  a  merry  one '  is  the  creed  of  a  good  many 
of  us,  though  we  do  not  like  to  confess  it.  Some  of 
you  will  remember  the  strange  way  in  which  ordinary 
habits  survived  in  prisons  in  the  dreadful  times  of  the 
French  Revolution,  and  how  ladies  and  gentlemen, 
who  were  going  to  have  their  heads  chopped  off  next 
morning,  danced  and  flirted,  and  sat  at  entertainments, 
just  as  if  there  was  no  such  thing  in  the  world  as  the 
public  prosecutor  and  the  tumbril,  and  the  gaoler  going 
about  with  a  bit  of  chalk  to  mark  each  door  where  were 
the  condemned  for  next  day. 

That  same  strange  power  of  ignoring  a  known  future, 
which  works  so  widely  and  so  disastrously  round  about 
us,  is  especially  manifested  in  regard  to  religion.  The 
great  bulk  of  English  men  and  women  who  are  not 
Christians,  and  the  little  sample  of  such  that  I  have 
in  my  audience  now,  as  a  rule  believe  as  fully  as 
we  do  the  truths  which  they  agree  to  neglect.  Let  me 
speak  to  them  individually.  You  believe  that  death 
will  introduce  you  into  a  world  of  two  halves — that  if 
you  have  been  a  good,  religious  man,  you  will  dwell 
in  blessedness;  that  if  you  have  not,  you  will  not — 
yet  you  never  did  a  single  thing,  nor  refrained  from  a 
single  thing,  because  of  that  belief.  And  when  I,  and 
men  of  my  profession,  come  and  plead  with  you  and 
try  to  get  through  that  strange  web  of  insensibility 
that  you  have  spun  round  you,  you  listen,  and  then 
you  say,  with  a  shrug,  'He  prophesies  of  things  that 
are  far  off,'  and  you  turn  with  relief  to  the  trivialities 
of  the  day.  Need  I  ask  you  whether  that  is  a  wise 
thing  or  not  ? 

Surely  it  is  not  wise  for  a  man  to  ignore  a  future 

B 


18  THE  BOOK  OF  EZEKIEL    [ch.  viii. 

that  is  certain  simply  because  it  is  distant.  So  long  as 
it  is  certain,  what  in  the  name  of  common-sense  has 
the  time  when  it  begins  to  be  a  present  to  do  with 
our  wisdom  in  regard  to  it?  It  is  the  uncertainty  in 
future  anticipations  which  makes  it  unwise  to  regulate 
life  largely  by  them,  and  if  you  can  eliminate  that 
element  of  uncertainty  —  which  you  can  do  if  you 
believe  in  Jesus  Christ — then  the  question  is  not  when 
is  the  prophecy  going  to  be  fulfilled,  but  is  it  true  and 
trustworthy  ?  The  man  is  a  fool  who,  because  it  is  far 
off,  thinks  he  can  neglect  it. 

Surely  it  is  not  wise  to  ignore  a  future  which  is  so 
incomparably  greater  than  this  present,  and  which 
also  is  so  connected  with  this  present  as  that  life  here 
is  only  intelligible  as  the  vestibule  and  preparation  for 
that  great  world  beyond. 

Surely  it  is  not  wise  to  ignore  a  future  because  you 
fancy  it  is  far  away,  when  it  may  burst  upon  you  at 
any  time.  These  exiles  to  whom  Ezekiel  spoke  hugged 
themselves  in  the  idea  that  his  words  were  not  to  be 
fulfilled  for  many  days  to  come ;  but  they  were  mis- 
taken, and  the  crash  of  the  fall  of  Jerusalem  stunned 
them  before  many  months  had  passed  by.  We  have 
to  look  forward  to  a  future  which  must  be  very  near 
to  some  of  us,  which  may  be  nearer  to  others  than 
they  think,  which  at  the  remotest  is  but  a  little  way 
from  us,  and  which  must  come  to  us  all.  Oh,  dear 
friends,  surely  it  is  not  wise  to  ignore  as  far  off  that 
which  for  some  of  us  may  be  here  before  this  day 
closes,  which  will  probably  be  ours  in  some  cases 
before  the  fresh  young  leaves  now  upon  the  trees 
have  dropped  yellow  in  the  autumn  frosts,  which  at 
the  most  distant  must  be  very  near  us,  and  which  waits 
for  us  all. 


V.  27]  THE  HOLY  NATION  19 

What  would  you  think  of  the  crew  and  passengers 
of  some  ship  lying  in  harbour,  waiting  for  its  sailing 
orders,  who  had  got  leave  on  shore,  and  did  not  know 
but  that  at  any  moment  the  blue-peter  might  be  flying 
at  the  fore  —  the  signal  to  weigh  anchor  —  if  they 
behaved  themselves  in  the  port  as  if  they  were  never 
going  to  embark,  and  made  no  preparations  for  the 
voyage?  Let  me  beseech  you  to  rid  yourselves  of 
that  most  unreasonable  of  all  reasons  for  neglecting 
the  gospel,  that  its  most  solemn  revelations  refer  to 
the  eternity  beyond  the  grave. 

There  are  many  proofs  that  man  on  the  whole  is  a 
very  foolish  creature,  but  there  is  not  one  more 
tragical  than  the  fact  that  believing,  as  many  of  you 
do,  that  *  the  wages  of  sin  is  death,  and  the  gift  of 
God  is  eternal  life  through  Jesus  Christ,'  you  stand 
aloof  from  accepting  the  gift,  and  risk  the  death. 

The  '  times  far  off '  have  long  since  come  near 
enough  to  those  scoffers.  The  most  distant  future 
w^ill  be  present  to  you  before  you  are  ready  for  it, 
unless  you  accept  Jesus  Christ  as  your  All,  for  time 
and  for  eternity.  If  you  do,  the  time  that  is  near  will 
be  pure  and  calm,  and  the  times  that  are  far  off  will 
be  radiant  with  unfading  bliss. 


THE  HOLY  NATION 

•  Then  ■will  I  sprinkle  clean  water  upon  you,  and  ye  shall  be  clean :  from  all  your 
filthiness,  and  from  all  your  idols,  will  I  cleanse  you.  26.  A  new  heart  also  will  I 
give  you,  and  a  new  spirit  will  I  put  within  you  :  and  I  will  take  away  the  stony 
heart  out  of  your  flesh,  and  I  will  give  you  an  heart  of  flesh.  27.  And  I  will  put 
My  Spirit  within  you,  and  cause  you  to  walk  in  My  statutes,  and  ye  shall  keep  My 
judgments,  and  do  them.  28.  And  ye  shall  dwell  in  the  land  that  I  gave  to  your 
fathers ;  and  ye  shall  be  My  people,  and  I  will  be  your  God.  29.  I  will  also  save 
you  from  all  your  uncleannesses :  and  I  will  call  for  the  corn,  and  will  increase  it, 
and  lay  no  famine  upon  you.  30.  And  I  will  multiply  the  fruit  of  the  tree,  and  the 
increase  of  the  fleld,  that  ye  shall  receive  no  more  reproach  of  famine  among  the 
heathen.    31.  Then  shall  ye  remember  your  own  evil  ways,  and  yoiir  doings  that 


20  THE  BOOK  OF  EZEKIEL    [ch.  xxxvi. 

were  not  good,  and  shall  loathe  yourselves  in  your  own  sight  for  your  iniquities 
and  for  your  abominations.  32.  Not  for  your  sakes  do  I  this,  saith  the  Lord  God, 
be  it  known  unto  you  :  be  ashamed  and  confounded  for  your  own  ways,  O  house 
of  Israel.  33.  Thus  saith  the  Lord  God ;  In  the  day  that  I  shall  have  cleansed  you 
from  all  your  iniquities  I  will  also  cause  you  to  dwell  in  the  cities,  and  the  wastes 
shall  be  builded.  34.  And  the  desolate  land  shall  be  tilled,  whereas  it  lay  desolate 
in  the  sight  of  all  that  passed  by.  35.  And  they  shall  say.  This  land  that  was 
desolate  is  become  like  the  garden  of  Eden ;  and  the  waste  and  desolate  and 
ruined  cities  are  become  fenced,  and  are  inhabited.  36.  Then  the  heathen  that 
are  left  round  about  you  shall  know  that  I  the  Lord  build  the  ruined  places,  and 
plant  that  that  was  desolate :  I  the  Lord  have  spoken  it,  and  I  will  do  it.  37.  Thua 
saith  the  Lord  God  ;  I  will  yet  for  this  be  enquired  of  by  the  house  of  Israel,  to  do 
it  for  them ;  I  will  increase  them  with  men  like  a  flock.  38.  As  the  holy  flock,  as 
the  flock  of  Jerusalem  in  her  solemn  feasts;  so  shall  the  waste  cities  be  filled  with 
flocks  of  men :  and  they  shall  know  that  I  am  the  Lord.'— Ezekiel  xxxvi.  25-38. 

This  great  prophecy  had  but  a  partial  fulfilment, 
though  a  real  one,  in  the  restored  Israel.  The  land 
was  given  back,  the  nation  was  multiplied,  fertility 
again  blessed  the  smiling  fields  and  vineyards,  and, 
best  of  all,  the  people  were  cleansed  '  from  all  their 
idols'  by  the  furnace  of  affliction.  Nothing  is  more 
remarkable  than  the  transformation  effected  by  the 
captivity,  in  regard  to  the  idolatrous  propensities  of 
the  people.  Whereas  before  it  they  v^ere  always 
hankering  after  the  gods  of  the  nations,  they  came 
back  from  Babylon  the  resolute  champions  of  mono- 
theism, and  never  thereafter  showed  the  smallest 
inclination  for  what  had  before  been  so  irresistible. 

But  the  fulness  of  Ezekiel's  prophecy  is  not  realised 
until  Jeremiah's  prophecy  of  the  new  covenant  is 
brought  to  pass.  Nor  does  the  state  of  the  militant 
church  on  earth  exhaust  it.  Future  glories  gleam 
through  the  words.  They  have  a  '  springing  accom- 
plishment '  in  the  Israel  of  the  restoration,  a  fuller  in 
the  New  Testament  church,  and  their  ultimate  realisa- 
tion in  the  New  Jerusalem,  which  shall  yet  descend  to 
be  the  bride,  the  Lamb's  wife.  The  principles  involved 
in  the  prophecy  belong  to  the  region  of  purely  spiritual 
religion,  and  are  worth  pondering,  apart  from  any 
question  of  the  place  and  manner  of  fulfilment. 


V8. 25-38]         THE  HOLY  NATION  21 

First  comes  the  great  truth  that  the  foundation,  so 
far  as  concerns  the  history  of  a  soul  or  of  a  community, 
of  all  other  good  is  divine  forgiveness  (v.  25).  Ezekiel, 
the  priest,  casts  the  promise  into  ceremonial  form,  and 
points  to  the  sprinklings  of  the  polluted  under  the  law, 
or  to  the  ritual  of  consecration  to  the  priesthood.  That 
cleansing  is  the  removal  of  already  contracted  defile- 
ment, especially  of  the  guilt  of  idolatry.  It  is  clearly 
distinguished  from  the  operation  on  the  inward  nature 
which  follows ;  that  is  to  say,  it  is  the  promise  of  for- 
giveness, or  of  justification,  not  of  sanctification. 

From  what  deep  fountains  in  the  divine  nature  that 
'clean  water'  was  to  flow,  Ezekiel  does  not  know;  but 
we  have  learned  that  a  more  precious  fluid  than  water 
is  needed,  and  have  to  think  of  Him  *  who  came  not  by 
water  only,  but  by  water  and  blood,'  in  whom  we  have 
redemption  through  His  blood,  even  the  forgiveness  of 
our  sins.  But  the  central  idea  of  this  first  promise  is 
that  it  must  be  God's  hand  which  sprinkles  from  an  evil 
conscience.  Forgiveness  is  a  divine  prerogative.  He 
only  can,  and  He  will,  cleanse  from  all  filthiness.  His 
pardon  is  universal.  The  most  ingrained  sins  cannot 
be  too  black  to  melt  away  from  the  soul.  The  dye- 
stuffs  of  sin  are  very  strong,  but  there  is  one  solvent 
which  they  cannot  resist.  There  are  no  *  fast  colours ' 
which  God's  'clean  water' cannot  move.  This  cleans- 
ing of  pardon  underlies  all  the  rest  of  the  blessings.  It 
is  ever  the  first  thing  needful  when  a  soul  returns  to 
God. 

Then  follows  an  equally  exclusively  divine  act,  the 
impartation  of  a  new  nature,  which  shall  secure  future 
obedience  (vs.  26,  27).  Who  can  thrust  his  hand  into 
the  depths  of  man's  being,  and  withdraw  one  life- 
principle  and  enshrine  another,  while  yet  the  individu- 


22  THE  BOOK  OF  EZEKIEL  [ch.xxxvi. 

ality  of  the  man  remains  untouched  ?  God  only.  How 
profound  the  consciousness  of  universal  obstinacy  and 
insensibility  which  regards  human  nature,  apart  from 
such  renewal,  as  possessing  but  a  'heart  of  stone'! 
There  are  no  sentimental  illusions  about  the  grim  facts 
of  humanity  here.  Superficial  views  of  sin  and  rose- 
tinted  fancies  about  human  nature  will  not  admit  the 
truth  of  the  Scripture  doctrine  of  sinfulness,  alienation 
from  God.  They  diagnose  the  disease  superficially,  and 
therefore  do  not  know  how  to  cure  it.  The  Bible  can 
venture  to  give  full  weight  to  the  gravity  of  the  sick- 
ness, because  it  knows  the  remedy.  No  surgery  but 
God's  can  perform  that  operation  of  extracting  the 
stony  heart  and  inserting  a  heart  of  flesh.  No  system 
which  cannot  do  that  can  do  what  men  want.  The 
gospel  alone  deals  thoroughly  with  man's  ills. 

And  how  does  it  effect  that  great  miracle  ?  '  I  will 
put  My  Spirit  within  you.'  The  new  life-principle  is 
the  effluence  of  the  Spirit  of  God.  The  promise  does 
not  merely  offer  the  influence  of  a  divine  spirit,  working 
on  men  as  from  without,  or  coming  down  upon  them  as 
an  afflatus,  but  the  actual  planting  of  God's  Spirit  in 
the  deep  places  of  theirs.  We  fail  to  apprehend  the 
most  characteristic  blessing  of  the  gospel  if  we  do  not 
give  full  prominence  to  that  great  gift  of  an  indwelling 
Spirit,  the  life  of  our  lives.  Cleansing  is  much,  but  is 
incomplete  without  a  new  life-principle  which  shall 
keep  us  clean ;  and  that  can  only  be  God's  Spirit,  en- 
shrined and  operative  within  us ;  for  'only  thus  shall 
we  *  walk  in  His  statutes,  and  keep  His  judgments.' 
When  the  Lawgiver  dwells  in  our  hearts,  the  law  will 
be  our  delight ;  and  keeping  it  will  be  the  natural  out- 
come and  expression  of  our  life,  which  is  His  life. 

Then  follows  the  picture  of  the  blessed  effects  of 


vs.  25-38]         THE  HOLY  NATION  28 

obedience  (vs.  28-30).  These  are  cast  into  the  form 
appropriate  to  the  immediate  purpose  of  the  prophecy, 
and  received  fulfilment  in  the  actual  restoration  to  the 
land,  which  fulfilment,  however,  was  imperfect,  inas- 
much as  the  obedience  and  renewal  of  the  people's 
hearts  were  incomplete.  These  can  only  be  complete 
under  the  gospel,  and,  in  the  fullest  sense,  only  in 
another  order  than  the  present.  When  men  fully  keep 
God's  judgments,  they  shall  dwell  permanently  in  a 
good  land.  Israel's  hold  on  its  country  was  its  obedi- 
ence, not  its  prowess.  Our  real  hold  on  even  earthly 
good  is  the  choosing  of  God  for  our  supreme  good. 
In  the  measure  in  which  we  can  say  '  Thy  law  is  wit!  .hi 
my  heart,'  all  things  are  ours ;  and  we  may  possess  all 
things  while  having  nothing  in  the  vulgar  world's  sense 
of  having.  Similarly  that  obedience,  which  is  the  fruit 
of  the  new  life  of  God's  Spirit  in  our  spirits,  is  the  con- 
dition of  close  mutual  possession  in  the  blessed  recipro- 
city of  trust  and  faithfulness,  love  bestowing  and  love 
receiving,  by  which  the  quiet  heart  knows  that  God  is 
its,  and  it  is  God's.  If  stains  and  interruptions  still 
sometimes  break  the  perfectness  of  obedience  and  con- 
tinuity of  reciprocal  ownership,  there  will  be  a  further 
cleansing  for  such  sins.  '  If  we  walk  in  the  light,  the 
blood  of  Jesus  Christ  His  Son  cleanseth  us  from  all  sin ' 
(v.  29). 

The  lovely  picture  of  the  blessed  dwellers  in  their 
good  land  is  closed  by  the  promise  of  abundant  harvests 
from  corn  and  fruit-tree  ;  that  is,  all  that  nourishes  or 
delights.  The  deepest  truth  taught  thereby  is  that  he 
who  lives  in  God  has  no  unsatisfied  desires,  but  finds  in 
Him  all  that  can  sustain,  strengthen,  and  minister  to 
growth,  and  all  that  can  give  gladness  and  delight.  If 
we  wake  God  our  l^eritage,  we  dwell  secure  in  ft  goo4 


24  THE  BOOK  OF  EZEKIEL  [ch.  xxxvi. 

land ;  and  '  the  dust  of  that  land  is  gold/  and  its 
harvests  ever  plenteous. 

Very  profoundly  and  beautifully  does  Ezekiel  put  as 
the  last  trait  in  his  picture,  and  as  the  upshot  of  all 
this  cornucopia  of  blessings,  the  penitent  remembrance 
of  past  evils.  Undeserved  mercies  steal  into  the  heart 
like  the  breath  of  the  south  wind,  and  melt  the  ice. 
The  more  we  advance  in  holiness  and  consequent 
blessed  communion  with  God,  the  more  clearly  shall 
we  see  the  evil  of  our  past.  Forgiven  sin  looks  far 
blacker  because  it  is  forgiven.  When  we  are  not  afraid 
of  sin's  consequences,  we  see  more  plainly  its  sinfulness. 
When  we  have  tasted  God's  sweetness,  we  think  with 
more  shame  of  our  ingratitude  and  folly.  If  God  for- 
gets, the  more  reason  for  us  to  remember  our  trans- 
gressions. The  man  who  *  has  forgotten  that  he  was 
purged  from  his  old  sins '  is  in  danger  of  finding  out 
that  he  is  not  purged  from  them.  There  is  no  gnawing 
of  conscience,  nor  any  fearful  looking  for  of  judgment 
in  such  remembrance,  but  a  wholesome  humility  pass- 
ing into  thankful  wonder  that  such  sin  is  pardoned, 
and  such  a  sinner  made  God's  friend. 

The  deep  foundation  of  all  the  blessedness  is  finally 
laid  bare  (v.  32)  as  being  God's  undeserved  mercy.  '  For 
Mine  holy  name '  (v.  22)  is  God's  reason.  He  is  His  own 
motive,  and  He  wills  that  the  world  should  know  His 
name, — that  is.  His  manifested  character, — and  under- 
stand how  loving  and  long-suffering  He  is.  So  He  wills, 
not  because  such  knowledge  adds  to  His  glory,  but  be- 
cause it  satisfies  His  love,  since  it  will  make  the  men  who 
know  His  name  blessed.  The  truth  that  God's  motive 
is  His  own  name's  sake  may  be  so  put  as  to  be  hideous 
and  repellent ;  but  it  really  proclaims  that  He  is  love, 
and  that  His  motive  is  His  poor  creatures'  blessing. 


vs. 25-38]         THE  HOLY  NATION  25 

To  this  great  outline  of  the  blessings  of  the  restored 
nations  are  appended  two  subsidiary  prophecies, 
marked  by  the  recurring  '  Thus  saith  the  Lord.'  The 
former  of  these  (vs.  33-36)  deals  principally  with  the 
new  beauty  that  was  to  clothe  the  land.  The  day  in 
which  the  inhabitants  were  cleansed  from  their  sins 
was  to  be  the  day  in  which  the  land  was  to  be  raised 
from  its  ruin.  Cities  are  to  be  rebuilt,  the  ground  that 
had  lain  fallow  and  tangled  with  briers  and  thorns  is 
to  be  tilled,  and  to  bloom  like  Eden,  a  restored  para- 
dise. How  far  the  fulfilment  has  halted  behind  the 
promise,  the  melancholy  condition  of  Palestine  to-day 
may  remind  us.  Whether  the  literal  fulfilment  is  to  be 
anticipated  or  no  seems  less  important  than  to  note  that 
the  experience  of  forgiveness  (and  of  the  consequent 
blessings  described  above)  is  the  precursor  of  this  fair 
picture.  Therefore,  the  Church's  condition  of  growth 
and  prosperity  is  its  realisation  in  the  persons  of  its 
individual  members,  of  pardon,  the  renewal  of  the 
inner  man  by  the  indwelling  Spirit,  faithful  obedience, 
communion  with  God,  and  lowly  remembrance  of  past 
sins.  Where  churches  are  marked  by  such  character- 
istics, they  will  grow.  If  they  are  not,  all  their 
'  evangelistic  efforts '  will  be  as  sounding  brass  and  a 
tinkling  cymbal. 

The  second  appended  prophecy  (vs.  37,  38)  is  that  of 
increase  of  population.  The  picture  of  the  flocks  of 
sheep  for  sacrifice,  which  thronged  Jerusalem  at  the 
feasts,  is  given  as  a  likeness  of  the  swarms  of  inhabi- 
tants in  the  '  waste  cities.'  The  point  of  comparison  is 
chiefly  the  number.  One  knows  how  closely  a  flock 
huddles  and  seems  to  fill  the  road  in  endless  procession. 
But  the  destination  as  well  as  the  number  comes  into 
view.    All  these  patient  creatures,  crowding  the  ways, 


26  THE  BOOK  OF  EZEKIEL  [ch.xxxvii. 

are  meant  for  sacrifices.  So  the  inhabitants  of  the  land 
then  shall  all  yield  themselves  to  God,  living  sacrifices. 
The  first  w^ords  of  our  text  point  to  the  priesthood  of 
all  believers;  the  last  words  point  to  the  sacrifice  of 
themselves  v^hich  they  have  to  offer. 

'  For  this  moreover  will  I  be  inquired  of  by  the  house 
of  Israel.'  The  blessings  promised  do  not  depend  on 
our  merits,  as  we  have  heard,  but  yet  they  will  not 
be  given  without  our  co-operation  in  prayer.  God 
promises,  and  that  promise  is  not  a  reason  for  our  not 
asking  the  gifts  from  Him,  but  for  our  asking.  Faith 
keeps  within  the  lines  of  God's  promise,  and  prayers 
which  do  not  foot  themselves  on  a  promise  are  the  off- 
spring of  presumption,  not  of  faith.  God  '  lets  Himself 
be  inquired  of '  for  that  which  is  in  accordance  with  His 
will ;  and,  accordant  with  His  will  though  it  be.  He  will 
not '  do  it  for  them,'  unless  His  flock  ask  of  Him  the 
accomplishment  of  His  own  word. 


THE  DRY  BONES  AND  THE  SPIRIT  OF  LIFE 

'  The  hand  of  the  Lord  was  upon  rae,  and  carriod  me  out  in  the  spirit  of  the 
Lord,  and  set  me  down  in  the  midst  of  the  valley  which  was  full  of  bones,  2.  And 
caused  me  to  pass  by  them  round  about :  and,  behold,  there  were  very  many  in 
the  open  valley ;  and,  lo,  they  were  very  dry.  3.  And  He  said  unto  me.  Son  of 
man,  can  these  bones  live?  And  I  answered,  O  Lord  God,  Thou  knowest. 
4.  Again  He  said  unto  me.  Prophesy  upon  these  bones,  and  say  unto  them,  O  ye 
dry  bones,  hear  the  word  of  the  Lord.  5.  Thus  saith  the  Lord  God  unto  these 
bones ;  Behold,  I  will  cause  breath  to  enter  into  you,  and  ye  shall  live :  6.  And 
I  will  lay  sinews  upon  you,  and  will  bring  up  flesh  upon  you,  and  cover  you  with 
skin,  and  put  breath  in  you,  and  ye  shall  live  ;  and  ye  shall  know  that  I  am  the 
Lord.  7.  So  I  prophesied  as  I  was  commanded  :  and  as  I  prophesied,  there  was  a 
noise,  and  behold  a  shaking,  and  the  bones  came  together,  bone  to  his  bone. 
8.  And  when  I  beheld,  lo,  the  sinews  and  the  flesh  came  up  upon  them,  and  the 
skin  covered  them  above:  but  there  was  no  breath  in  them.  9.  Then  said  He 
unto  me,  Prophesy  unto  the  wind,  prophesy,  son  of  man,  and  say  to  the  wind. 
Thus  saith  the  Lord  God  ;  Come  from  the  four  winds,  O  breath,  and  breathe  upon 
these  slain,  that  they  may  live.  10.  So  I  prophesied  as  He  commanded  me,  and 
the  breath  came  into  them,  and  they  lived,  and  stood  up  upon  their  feet,  an  ex- 
ceeding great  army.  11.  Then  He  said  unto  me,  Son  of  man,  these  bones  are  the 
whole  bouse  of  Israel :  behold,  they  say,  Our  bonea  are  dried,  and  our  hope  is 


vs.  1-14]  THE  DRY  BONES  27 

lost:  we  are  cut  off  for  onr  parts.  12.  Therefore  prophesy  and  say  unto  them. 
Thus  saith  the  Lord  God ;  Behold,  O  My  people,  I  will  open  your  graves,  and 
cause  you  to  come  up  out  of  your  graves,  and  bring  you  into  the  land  of  Israel. 
13.  And  ye  shall  know  that  I  am  the  Lord,  when  I  have  opened  your  graves,  O 
My  people,  and  brought  you  up  out  of  your  graves,  14.  And  shall  put  My  spirit 
in  you,  and  ye  shall  live,  and  I  shall  place  you  in  your  own  land :  then  shall  ye 
know  that  I  the  Lord  have  spoken  it,  and  performed  it,  saith  the  Lord.'— 
EZEKIEL  xxxvii.  1-14. 

This  great  vision  apparently  took  its  form  from  a 
despairing  saying,  which  had  become  a  proverb  among 
the  exiles,  'Our  bones  are  dried  up,  and  our  hope  is 
lost:  we  are  clean  cut  off'  (v.  11).  Ezekiel  lays  hold  of 
the  metaphor,  which  had  been  taken  to  express  the 
hopeless  destruction  of  Israel's  national  existence,  and 
even  from  it  wrings  a  message  of  hope.  Faith  has 
the  prerogative  of  seeing  possibilities  of  life  in  what 
looks  to  sense  hopeless  death.  We  may  look  at  the 
vision  from  three  points  of  view,  considering  its 
bearing  on  Israel,  on  the  world,  and  on  the  resurrec- 
tion of  the  body. 

I.  The  saying,  already  referred  to,  puts  the  hopeless- 
ness of  the  mass  of  the  exiles  in  a  forcible  fashion. 
The  only  sense  in  which  living  men  could  say  that  their 
bones  were  dried  up,  and  they  cut  off,  is  a  figurative 
one,  and  obviously  it  is  the  national  existence  which 
they  regarded  as  irretrievably  ended.  The  saying 
gives  us  a  glimpse  into  the  despair  which  had  settled 
down  on  the  exiles,  and  against  which  Ezekiel  had 
to  contend,  as  he  had  also  to  contend  against  its 
apparently  opposite  and  yet  kindred  feeling  of  pre- 
sumptuous, misplaced  hope.  We  observe  that  he 
begins  by  accepting  fully  the  facts  which  bred  despair, 
and  even  accentuating  them.  The  true  prophet  never 
makes  light  of  the  miseries  of  which  he  knows  the 
cure,  and  does  not  try  to  comfort  by  minimising  the 
gravity  of  the  evil.  The  bones  are  very  many,  and 
they  are  very  dry.    As  far  as  outward  resources  are 


28  THE  BOOK  OF  EZEKIEL    [ch.xxxvii. 

concerned,  despair  was  rational,  and  hope  as  absurd  as 
it  would  have  been  to  expect  that  men,  dead  so  long 
that  their  bones  had  been  bleached  by  years  of  ex- 
posure to  the  weather,  should  live  again. 

But  while  Ezekiel  saw  the  facts  of  Israel's  powerless- 
ness  as  plainly  as  the  most  despondent,  he  did  not 
therefore  despair.  The  question  which  rose  in  his 
mind  was  God's  question,  and  the  very  raising  it 
let  a  gleam  of  hope  in.  So  he  answered  with  that 
noble  utterance  of  faith  and  submission,  '  O  Lord 
God,  Thou  knowest.'  'With  God  all  things  are 
possible.'  Presumption  would  have  said  '  Yes ' ; 
Unbelief  would  have  said  '  No ' ;  Faith  says,  *  Thou 
knowest.' 

The  grand  description  of  the  process  of  resurrection 
follows  the  analogy  of  the  order  in  the  creation  of 
man,  giving,  first,  the  shaping  of  the  body,  and  after- 
wards the  breathing  into  it  of  the  breath  which  is  life. 
Both  stages  are  wholly  God's  work.  The  prophet's 
part  was  to  prophesy  to  the  bones  first ;  and  his  word, 
in  a  sense,  brought  about  the  effect  which  it  foretold, 
since  his  ministry  was  the  most  potent  means  of  re- 
kindling dying  hopes,  and  bringing  the  disjecta  membra 
of  the  nation  together  again.  The  vivid  and  gigantic 
imagination  of  the  prophet  gives  a  picture  of  the 
rushing  together  of  the  bones,  which  has  no  superior 
in  any  literature.  He  hears  a  noise,  and  sees  a 
'  shaking '  (by  which  is  meant  the  motion  of  the  bones 
to  each  other,  rather  than  an  '  earthquake,'  as  the 
Revised  Version  has  it,  which  inserts  a  quite  irrelevant 
detail),  and  the  result  of  all  is  that  the  skeletons  are 
complete.  Then  follows  the  gradual  clothing  with 
flesh.     There  they  lie,  a  host  of  corpses. 

The  second  stage  is  the  quickening  of  these  bodies 


▼S.1-U]  THE  DRY  BONES  29 

with  life,  and  here  again  Ezekiel,  as  God's  messenger, 
has  power  to  bring  about  what  he  announces ;  for,  at 
his  command,  the  breath,  or  wind,  or  spirit,  comes, 
and  the  stiff  corpses  spring  to  their  feet,  a  mighty- 
army.  The  explanation  in  the  last  verses  of  the  text 
somewhat  departs  from  the  tenor  of  the  vision  by 
speaking  of  Israel  as  buried,  but  keeps  to  its  substance, 
and  point  the  despairing  exiles  to  God  as  the  source 
of  national  resurrection.  But  we  must  not  force 
deeper  meaning  on  Ezekiel's  words  than  they  properly 
bear.  The  spirit  promised  in  them  is  simply  the 
source  of  life, — literally,  of  physical  life;  metaphoric- 
ally, of  national  life.  However  that  national  restora- 
tion was  connected  with  holiness,  that  does  not  enter 
into  the  prophet's  vision.  Israel's  restoration  to  its 
land  is  all  that  Ezekiel  meant  by  it.  True,  that 
restoration  was  to  lead  to  clearer  recognition  by- 
Israel  of  the  name  of  Jehovah,  and  of  all  that  it  im- 
plied in  him  and  demanded  from  them.  But  the  proper 
scope  of  the  vision  is  to  assure  despairing  Israelites 
that  God  would  quicken  the  apparently  slain  national 
life,  and  replace  them  in  the  land. 

II.  We  may  extend  the  application  of  the  vision  to 
the  condition  of  humanity  and  the  divine  intervention 
which  communicates  life  to  a  dead  world,  but  must 
remember  that  no  such  meaning  was  in  Ezekiel's 
thoughts.  The  valley  full  of  dry  bones  is  but  too  cor- 
rect a  description  of  the  aspect  which  a  world  '  dead 
in  trespasses  and  sins'  bears,  when  seen  from  the 
mountain-top  by  pure  and  heavenly  eyes.  The 
activities  of  godless  lives  mask  the  real  spiritual 
death,  which  is  the  condition  of  every  soul  that  is 
separate  from  God.  Galvanised  corpses  may  have 
muscular   movements,  but  they   are    dead,    notwith- 


30         THE  BOOK  OF  EZEKIEL    [ch.xxxvii. 

standing  their  twitching.  They  that  live  without  God 
are  dead  while  they  live. 

Again,  we  may  learn  from  the  vision  the  preparation 
needful  for  the  prophet,  who  is  to  be  the  instrument 
of  imparting  divine  life  to  a  dead  world.  The  sorrow- 
ful sense  of  the  widespread  deadness  must  enter  into 
a  man's  spirit,  and  be  ever  present  to  him,  in  order 
to  fit  him  for  his  work.  A  dead  world  is  not  to  be 
quickened  on  easy  terms.  We  must  see  mankind  in 
some  measure  as  God  sees  them  if  we  are  to  do  God's 
work  among  them.  So-called  Christian  teachers,  who 
do  not  believe  that  the  race  is  dead  in  sin,  or  who, 
believing  it,  do  not  feel  the  tragedy  of  the  fact,  and 
the  power  lodged  in  their  hands  to  bring  the  true  life, 
may  prophesy  to  the  dry  bones  for  ever,  and  there  will 
be  no  shaking  among  them. 

The  great  work  of  the  gospel  is  to  communicate 
divine  life.  The  details  of  the  process  in  the  vision 
are  not  applicable  in  this  respect.  As  we  have  pointed 
out,  they  are  shaped  after  the  pattern  of  the  creation 
of  Adam,  but  the  essential  point  is  that  what  the  world 
needs  is  the  impartation  from  God  of  His  Spirit.  We 
know  more  than  Ezekiel  did  as  to  the  way  by  which 
that  Spirit  is  given  to  men,  and  as  to  the  kind  of  life 
which  it  imparts,  and  as  to  the  connection  between 
that  life  and  holiness.  It  is  a  diviner  voice  than 
Ezekiel's  which  speaks  to  us  in  the  name  of  Gx)d,  and 
says  to  us  with  deeper  meaning  than  the  prophet  of 
the  Exile  dreamed  of,  '  I  will  put  my  Spirit  in  you,  and 
ye  shall  live.' 

But  we  may  note  that  it  is  possible  to  have  the 
outward  form  of  a  living  body,  and  yet  to  have  no  life. 
Churches  and  individuals  may  be  perfectly  organised 
and  perfectly  dead.     Creeds  may  be  articulated  most 


▼8. 1-14]  THE  DRY  BONES  81 

correctly,  every  bone  in  its  place,  and  yet  have  no  vital- 
ity in  them.  Forms  of  worship  may  be  punctiliously 
proper,  and  have  no  breath  of  life  in  them.  Religion 
must  have  a  body,  but  often  the  body  is  not  so  much 
the  organ  as  the  sepulchre  of  the  spirit.  We  have 
to  take  heed  that  the  externals  do  not  kill  the  inward 
life. 

Again,  we  note  that  this  great  act  of  life-giving  is 
God's  revelation  of  His  name, — that  is,  of  His  character 
so  far  as  men  can  know  it.  '  Ye  shall  know  that  I 
am  the  Lord '  (vs.  13,  14).  God  makes  Himself  known 
in  His  divinest  glory  when  He  quickens  dead  souls.  The 
world  may  learn  what  He  is  therefrom,  but  they  who 
have  experienced  the  change,  and  have,  as  it  were, 
been  raised  from  the  grave  to  new  life,  have  personal 
experience  of  His  power  and  faithfulness  so  sure  and 
sweet  that  henceforward  they  cannot  doubt  Him  nor 
forget  His  grace. 

III.  As  to  the  bearing  of  the  vision  on  the  doctrine  of 
the  resurrection  little  need  be  said.  It  does  not  neces- 
sarily presuppose  the  people's  acquaintance  with  that 
doctrine,  for  it  would  be  quite  conceivable  that  the 
vision  had  revealed  to  the  prophet  the  thought  of  a 
resurrection,  which  had  not  been  in  his  beliefs  before. 
The  vision  is  so  entirely  figurative,  that  it  cannot  be 
employed  as  evidence  that  the  idea  of  the  resurrection 
of  the  dead  was  part  of  the  Jewish  beliefs  at  this  date. 
It  does,  however,  seem  most  natural  to  suppose  that 
the  exiles  were  familiar  with  the  idea,  though  the  vision 
cannot  be  taken  as  a  revelation  of  a  literal  resur- 
rection of  dead  men.  For  clear  expectations  of  such 
a  resurrection  we  must  turn  to  such  scriptures  as 
Daniel  xii.  2,  13. 


THE  RIVER  OF  LIFE 

•Waters  issued  out  from  under  the  threshold  of  the  house  .  .  . 

EZEKIEL  Xlvil,  1. 

Unlike  most  great  cities,  Jerusalem  was  not  situated 
on  a  great  river.  True,  the  inconsiderable  waters  of 
Siloam  —  *  which  flow  softly '  because  they  were  so 
inconsiderable — rose  from  a  crevice  in  the  Temple  rock, 
and  beneath  that  rock  stretched  the  valley  of  the 
Kedron,  dry  and  bleached  in  the  summer,  and  a  rainy 
torrent  during  the  rainy  seasons ;  but  that  was  all. 
So,  many  of  the  prophets,  who  looked  forward  to  the 
better  times  to  come,  laid  their  finger  upon  that  one 
defect,  and  prophesied  that  it  should  be  cured.  Thus 
we  read  in  a  psalm:  'There  is  a  river,  the  divisions 
whereof  make  glad  the  City  of  our  God.'  Faith  saw 
what  sense  saw  not.  Again,  Isaiah  says:  'There' 
— that  is  to  say,  in  the  new  Jerusalem — 'the  glorious 
Lord  shall  be  unto  us  a  place  of  broad  rivers  and 
streams.'  And  so,  this  prophet  casts  his  anticipations 
of  the  abundant  outpouring  of  blessing  that  shall  come 
when  God  in  very  deed  dwells  among  men,  into  this 
figure  of  a  river  pouring  out  from  beneath  the  Temple- 
door,  and  spreading  life  and  fertility  wherever  its  waters 
come.,'  I  need  not  remind  you  how  our  Lord  Himself 
uses  the  same  figure,  and  modifies  it,  by  saying  that  who- 
soever believeth  on  Him, '  out  of  him  shall  flow  rivers  of 
living  waters';  or  how,  in  the  very  last  words  of  the 
Apocalyptic  seer,  we  hear  again  the  music  of  the  ripples 
of  the  great  stream,  '  the  river  of  the  water  of  life 
proceeding  out  of  the  Throne  of  God  and  of  the  Lamb.' 
So  then,  all  through  Scripture,  we  may  say  that  we 
hear  the  murmur  of  the  stream,  and  can  catch  the  line 


T.  1]  THE  RIVER  OF  LIFE  83 

of  verdure  upon  its  banks.  My  object  now  is  not  only 
to  deal  with  the  words  that  I  have  read  as  a  starting- 
point,  but  rather  to  seek  to  draw  out  the  wonderful 
significance  of  this  great  prophetic  parable. 

I.  I  notice,  first,  the  source  from  which  the  river 
conies. 

I  have  already  anticipated  that  in  pointing  out  that 
it  flows  from  the  very  Temple  itself.  The  Prophet  sees 
it  coming  out  of  the  house — that  is  to  say,  the  Sanctuary. 
It  flows  across  the  outer  court  of  the  house,  passes  the 
altar,  comes  out  under  the  threshold,  and  then  pours 
itself  down  on  to  the  plain  beneath.  This  is  the  sym- 
bolical dress  of  the  thought  that  all  spiritual  blessings, 
and  every  conceivable  form  of  human  good,  take  their 
rise  in  the  fact  of  God's  dwelling  with  men.  From 
beneath  the  Temple  threshold  comes  the  water  of  life  ; 
and  wherever  it  is  true  that  in  any  heart — or  in  any 
community — God  dwells,  there  will  be  heard  the  tink- 
ling of  its  ripples,  and  freshness  and  fertility  will  come 
from  the  stream.  The  dwelling  of  God  with  a  man, 
like  the  dwelling  of  God  in  humanity  in  the  Incarna- 
tion of  His  own  dear  Son,  is,  as  it  were,  the  opening  of 
the  fountain  that  it  may  pour  out  into  the  world.  So, 
if  we  desire  to  have  the  blessings  that  are  possible  for 
us,  we  must  comply  with  the  conditions,  and  let  God 
dwell  in  our  hearts,  and  make  them  His  temples ;  and 
then  from  beneath  the  threshold  of  that  temple,  too, 
will  pour  out,  according  to  Christ's  own  promise,  rivers 
of  living  water  which  will  be  first  for  ourselves  to 
drink  of  and  be  blessed  by,  and  then  will  refresh  and 
gladden  others. 

Another  thought  connected  with  this  source  of  the 
river  of  life  is  that  all  the  blessings  which,  massed 
together,  are  included  in  that  one  word  '  salvation  '— 

O 


34  THE  BOOK  OF  EZEKIEL  [oh.xlvii. 

which  is  a  kind  of  nebula  made  up  of  many  unresolved 
stars — take  their  rise  from  nothing  else  than  the  deep 
heart  of  God  Himself.  This  river  rose  in  the  House  of 
the  Lord,  and  amidst  the  mysteries  of  the  Divine 
Presence ;  it  took  its  rise,  one  might  say,  from  beneath 
the  Mercy-seat  where  the  brooding  Cherubim  sat  in 
silence  and  poured  itself  into  a  world  that  had  not 
asked  for  it,  that  did  not  expect  it,  that  in  many  of  its 
members  did  not  desire  it  and  would  not  have  it.  The 
river  that  rose  in  the  secret  place  of  God  symbolises 
for  us  the  great  thought  which  is  put  into  plainer 
words  by  the  last  of  the  apostles  when  he  says,  'We 
love  Him  because  He  first  loved  us.'  All  the  blessings 
of  salvation  rise  from  the  unmotived,  self-impelled, 
self-fed  divine  love  and  purpose.  Nothing  moves  Him 
to  communicate  Himself  but  His  own  delight  in  giving 
Himself  to  His  poor  creatures ;  and  it  is  all  of  grace 
that  it  might  be  all  through  faith. 

Still  further,  another  thought  that  may  be  suggested 
in  connection  with  the  source  of  this  river  is,  that  that 
which  is  to  bless  the  world  must  necessarily  take  its 
rise  above  the  world.  Ezekiel  has  sketched,  in  the  last 
portion  of  his  prophecy,  an  entirely  ideal  topography 
of  the  Holy  Land.  He  has  swept  away  mountains  and 
valleys,  and  levelled  all  out  into  a  great  plain,  in  the 
midst  of  which  rises  the  mountain  of  the  Lord's  House, 
far  higher  than  the  Temple  hill.  In  reality,  opposite  it 
rose  the  Mount  of  Olives,  and  between  the  two  there 
was  the  deep  gorge  of  the  Valley  of  the  Kedron.  The 
Prophet  smooths  it  all  out  into  one  great  plain,  and 
high  above  all  towers  the  Temple-mount,  and  from  it 
there  rushes  down  on  to  the  low  levels  the  fertilising, 
life-giving  flood. 

That  imaginary  geography  tells  us  this,  that  what  ia 


T.l]  THE  RIVER  OF  LIFE  85 

to  bless  the  world  must  come  from  above  the  world. 
There  needs  a  waterfall  to  generate  electricity;  the 
power  which  is  to  come  into  humanity  and  deal  with 
its  miseries  must  have  its  source  high  above  the  objects 
of  its  energy  and  its  compassion,  and  in  proportion  to 
the  height  from  which  it  falls  will  be  the  force  of  its 
impact  and  its  power  to  generate  the  quickening 
impulse.  All  merely  human  efforts  at  social  reform, 
rivers  that  do  not  rise  in  the  Temple,  are  like  the  rivers 
in  Mongolia,  that  run  for  a  few  miles  and  then  get 
sucked  up  by  the  hot  sands  and  are  lost  and  nobody 
sees  them  any  more.  Only  the  perennial  stream,  that 
comes  out  from  beneath  the  Temple  threshold,  can 
sustain  itself  in  the  desert,  to  say  nothing  of  trans- 
forming the  desert  into  a  Garden  of  Eden.  So  moral 
and  social  and  intellectual  and  political  reformers  may 
well  go  to  Ezekiel,  and  learn  that  the  'river  of  the 
water  of  life,'  which  is  to  heal  the  barren  and  refresh 
the  thirsty  land,  must  come  from  below  the  Temple 
threshold. 

II.  Note  the  rapid  increase  of  the  stream. 

The  Prophet  describes  how  his  companion,  the  inter- 
preter, measured  down  the  stream  a  thousand  cubits — 
about  a  quarter  of  a  mile — and  the  waters  were  ankle- 
deep  another  thousand,  making  half  a  mile  from  the 
start,  and  the  water  was  knee-deep.  Another  thousand 
— or  three-quarters  of  a  mile — and  the  water  was  waist- 
deep  ;  another  thousand — about  a  mile  in  all — and  the 
water  was  unfordable,  '  waters  to  swim  in,  a  river  that 
could  not  be  passed  over.'  Where  did  the  increase 
come  from?  There  were  no  tributaries.  We  do  not 
hear  of  any  side-stream  flowing  into  the  main  body. 
Where  did  the  increase  come  from  ?  It  came  from  the 
abundant  welling-up  in  the  sanctuary.    The  fountain 


36  THE  BOOK  OF  EZEKIEL  [oh.xlvii. 

was  the  mothor  of  the  river — that  is  to  say,  God's  ideal 
for  the  world,  for  the  Church,  for  the  individual 
Christian,  is  rapid  increase  in  their  experience  of  the 
depth  and  the  force  of  the  stream  of  blessings  which 
together  make  up  salvation.  So  we  come  to  a  very 
sharp  testing  question.  Will  anybody  tell  me  that  the 
rate  at  which  Christianity  has  grown  for  these  nineteen 
centuries  corresponds  with  Ezekiel's  vision — which  is 
God's  ideal?  "Will  any  Christian  man  say,  'My  own 
growth  in  grace,  and  increase  in  the  depth  and  fulness 
of  the  flow  of  the  river  through  my  spirit  and  my  life 
correspond  to  that  ideal '  ?  A  mile  from  the  source 
the  river  is  unfordable.  How  many  miles  from  the 
source  of  our  first  experience  do  we  stand  ?  How  many 
of  us,  instead  of  having  'a  river  that  could  not  be 
passed  over,  waters  to  swim  in,'  have  but  a  poor  and  all 
but  stagnant  feeble  trickle,  as  shallow  as  or  shallower 
than  it  was  at  first  ? 

I  was  speaking  a  minute  ago  about  Mongolian  rivers. 
Australian  rivers  are  more  like  some  men's  lives.  A 
chain  of  ponds  in  the  dry  season — nay !  not  even  a  chain, 
but  a  series,  with  no  connecting  channel  of  water  be- 
tween them.  That  is  like  a  great  many  Christian  people ; 
they  have  isolated  times  when  they  feel  the  voice  of 
Christ's  love,  and  yield  themselves  to  the  powers  of  the 
world  to  come,  and  then  there  are  long  intervals,  when 
they  feel  neither  the  one  nor  the  other.  But  the 
picture  that  ought  to  be  realised  by  each  of  us  is  God's 
ideal,  which  there  is  power  in  the  gospel  to  make  real  in 
the  case  of  every  one  of  us,  the  rapid  and  continuous  in- 
crease in  the  depth  and  in  the  scour  of  '  the  river  of  the 
water  of  life,*  that  flows  through  our  lives.  Luther  used 
to  say,  *  If  you  want  to  clean  out  a  dunghill,  turn  the 
Elbe  into  it.*    If  you  desire  to  have  your  hearts  cleansed 


T.  1]  THE  RIVER  OF  LIFE  S7 

of  all  their  foulness,  turn  the  river  into  it.  But  it  needs 
to  be  a  progressively  deepening  river,  or  there  will  be 
no  scour  in  the  feeble  trickle,  and  we  shall  not  be  a  bit 
the  holier  or  the  purer  for  our  potential  and  imperfect 
Christianity. 

III.  Lastly,  note  the  effects  of  the  stream. 

These  are  threefold :  fertility,  healing,  life.  Fertility. 
In  the  East  one  condition  of  fertility  is  water.  Irrigate 
the  desert,  and  you  make  it  a  garden.  Break  down 
the  aqueduct,  and  you  make  the  granary  of  the  world 
into  a  waste.  The  traveller  as  he  goes  along  can 
tell  where  there  is  a  stream  of  water,  by  the  verdure 
along  its  banks.  You  travel  along  a  plateau,  and  it  is 
all  baked  and  barren.  You  plunge  into  a  wady,  and 
immediately  the  ground  is  clothed  with  under-growth 
and  shrubs,  and  the  birds  of  the  air  sing  among  the 
branches.  And  so,  says  Ezekiel,  wherever  the  river 
comes  there  springs  up,  as  if  by  magic,  fair  trees  '  on 
the  banks  thereof,  whose  leaf  shall  not  fade,  neither 
shall  the  fruit  thereof  be  consumed.' 

Fertility  comes  secfond,  the  reception  of  the  fertilising 
agent  comes  first.  It  is  wasted  time  to  tinker  at  our 
characters  unless  we  have  begun  with  getting  into  our 
hearts  the  grace  of  God,  and  the  new  spirit  that  will 
be  wrought  out  by  diligent  effort  into  all  beauty  of  life 
and  character.  Ezekiel  seems  to  be  copying  the  first 
psalm,  or  vice  versa,  the  Psalmist  is  copying  EzekieL 
At  any  rate,  there  is  a  verbal  similarity  between  them, 
in  that  both  dwell  upon  the  unfading  leaf  of  the  tree 
that  grows  planted  by  rivers  of  water.  And  our  text 
goes  further,  and  speaks  about  perennial  fruitfulness 
month  by  month,  all  the  year  round.  In  some  tropical 
countries  you  will  find  blossoms,  buds  in  their  earliesc 
stage,  and  ripened  fruit  all  hanging  upon  one  ladeu 


38  THE  BOOK  OF  EZEKIEL  [ch.xlvii. 

branch.  Such  ought  to  bo  the  Christian  life— con- 
tinuously fruitful  because  dependent  upon  continual 
drawing  into  itself,  by  means  of  its  roots  and  suckers, 
of  the  water  of  life  by  which  we  are  fructified. 

There  is  yet  another  effect  of  the  waters — healing. 
As  we  said,  Ezekiol  takes  great  liberties  with  the 
geography  of  the  Holy  Land,  levelling  it  all,  so  his 
stream  makes  nothing  of  the  Mount  of  Olives,  but  flows 
due  east  until  it  comes  to  the  smitten  gorge  of  the 
Jordan,  and  then  turns  south,  down  into  the  dull, 
leaden  waters  of  the  Dead  Sea,  which  it  heals.  We  all 
know  how  these  are  charged  with  poison.  Dip  up  a 
glassful  anywhere,  and  you  find  it  full  of  deleterious 
matter.  They  are  the  symbol  of  humanity,  with  the 
sin  that  is  in  solution  all  through  it.  No  chemist 
can  eliminate  it,  but  there  is  One  who  can.  •  He  hath 
made  Him  to  be  sin  for  us,  who  knew  no  sin,  that 
we  might  be  made  the  righteousness  of  God  in  Him.' 
The  pure  river  of  the  water  of  life  will  cast  out  from 
humanity  the  malignant  components  that  are  there, 
and  will  sweeten  it  all.  Ay,  all,  and  yet  not  all,  for 
very  solemnly  the  Prophet's  optimism  pauses,  and  he 
says  that  the  salt  marshes  by  the  side  of  the  sea  are 
not  healed.  They  are  by  the  side  of  it.  The  healing  is 
perfectly  a\  ralable  for  them,  but  they  are  not  healed. 
It  is  possible  for  men  to  reject  the  influences  that  make 
for  the  destruction  of  sin  and  the  establishment  of 
righteousness.  And  although  the  waters  are  healed, 
there  still  remain  the  obstinate  marshes  with  the  white 
crystals  efflorescing  on  their  surface,  and  bringing  salt 
and  barrenness.  You  can  put  away  the  healing  and 
remain  tainted  with  the  poison. 

And  then  the  last  thought  is  the  Hfo-giving  influence 
pf  the  river.    Everything  lived  whithersoever  it  went. 


v.l]  THE  RIVER  OF  LIFE  89 

Contrast  Christendom  with  heathendom.  Admit  all 
the  hollowness  and  mere  nominal  Christianity  of  large 
tracts  of  life  in  so-called  Christian  countries,  and  yet 
why  is  it  that  on  the  one  side  you  find  stagnation  and 
death,  and  on  the  other  side  mental  and  manifold 
activity  and  progressiveness  ?  I  believe  that  the 
difference  between  '  the  people  that  sit  in  darkness '  and 
*-he  people  that  walk  in  the  light  is  that  one  has  the 
light  and  the  other  has  not,  and  activity  befits  the 
light  as  torpor  befits  the  darkness. 

But  there  is  a  far  deeper  truth  than  that  in  the  figure, 
a  truth  that  I  would  fain  lay  upon  the  hearts  of  all  my 
hearers,  that  unless  we  our  own  selves  have  this  water 
of  life  which  comes  from  the  Sanctuary  and  is  brought 
to  us  by  Jesus  Christ,  'we  are  dead  in  trespasses  and 
sins.'  The  only  true  life  is  in  Christ.  'If  any  man 
thirst,  let  him  come  unto  Me,  and  drink.  He  that 
believeth  on  Me,  as  the  Scripture  hath  said,  out  of  his 
heart  shall  flow  rivers  of  living  water.' 


THE  BOOK  OF  DANIEL 


YOUTHFUL  CONFESSORS 

'  But  Daniel  purposed  in  his  heart  that  he  would  not  defile  himself  with  the  por- 
tion of  the  king'a  meat,  nor  with  the  wine  which  he  drank :  therefore  he  requested 
of  the  prince  of  the  eunuchs  that  he  might  not  deflle  himself.  9.  Now  God  had 
brought  Daniel  into  favour  and  tender  love  with  the  prince  of  the  eunuchs. 
10.  And  the  prince  of  the  eunuchs  said  unto  Daniel,  I  fear  my  lord  the  king,  who 
hath  appointed  your  meat  and  your  drink :  for  why  should  he  see  your  faces 
worse  liking  than  the  children  which  are  of  your  sort?  then  shall  ye  make  me 
endanger  ray  head  to  the  king.  11.  Then  said  Daniel  to  Melzar,  whom  the  prince 
of  the  eunuchs  had  set  over  Daniel,  Hananiah,  Mishael,  and  Azariah,  12.  Prove 
thy  servants,  I  beseech  thee,  ten  days ;  and  let  them  give  us  pidse  to  eat,  and 
water  to  drink.  13.  Then  let  our  countenances  be  looked  upon  before  thee,  and 
the  countenance  of  the  children  that  eat  of  the  portion  of  the  king's  meat: 
and  as  thou  seeat,  deal  with  thy  servants.  14.  So  he  consented  to  them  in  this 
matter,  and  proved  them  ten  days.  15.  And  at  the  end  of  ten  days  their  counten- 
ances appeared  fairer  and  fatter  in  flesh  than  all  the  children  which  did  eat  the 
portion  of  the  king's  meat.  16.  Thus  Melzar  took  away  the  portion  of  their  meat, 
and  the  wine  that  they  should  drink;  and  gave  thom  pulse.  17.  As  for  these 
four  children,  God  gave  them  knowledge  and  skill  in  all  learning  and  wisdom : 
and  Duiiiol  had  understanding  in  all  visions  and  dreams.  18.  Now  at  the  end  of 
the  days  that  the  king  had  said  he  should  bring  them  in,  then  the  prince  of  the 
eunuchs  brought  them  in  before  Nebuchadnezzar.  19.  And  the  king  com- 
muned with  them ;  and  among  them  all  was  found  none  like  Daniel,  Hananiah, 
Mishael,  and  Azariah :  therefore  stood  they  before  the  king.  20.  And  in  all 
matters  of  wisdom  and  understanding,  that  the  king  enquired  of  them,  he  found 
them  ten  times  better  than  all  the  magicians  and  astrologers  that  were  in  all 
his  realm.  21.  And  Daniel  continued  even  unto  the  first  year  of  king  Gyrus.'— 
Daniel  i.  8-21. 

Daniel  was  but  a  boy  at  the  date  of  the  Captivity, 
and  little  more  at  the  time  of  the  attempt  to  make 
a  Chaldean  of  him.  The  last  verse  says  that  he 
•continued  even  unto  the  first  year  of  king  Cyrus/  the 
date  given  elsewhere  as  the  close  of  the  Captivity 
(2  Chron.  xxxvi.  22 ;  Ezra  i.  1 ;  vi.  3).  From  Daniel  x.  1 
we  learn  that  he  lived  on  till  Cyrus's  third  year,  if  not 
later ;  but  the  date  in  i.  21  is  probably  given  in  order 
to    suggest  that  Daniel's   career  covered   the  whole 


▼s.8-21]      YOUTHFUL  CONFESSORS  41 

period  of  the  Captivity,  and  burned  like  a  star  of  hope 
for  the  exiles.  The  incident  in  our  passage  is  a  noble 
example  of  religious  principle  applied  to  small  details 
of  daily  life,  and  shows  how  God  crowns  such  con- 
scientious self-restraint  with  success.  The  lessons 
which  it  contains  are  best  gathered  by  following  the 
narrative. 

I.  The  heroic  determination  of  the  boyish  confessor 
is  first  set  forth.  The  plan  of  taking  leading  young 
men  from  the  newly  captured  nation  and  turning 
them  into  Babylonians  was  a  stroke  of  policy  as  heart- 
less and  high-handed  as  might  be  expected  from  a 
great  conqueror.  In  some  measure,  the  same  thing 
has  been  done  by  all  nations  who  have  built  up  a 
world-wide  dominion.  The  new  names  given  to  the 
youths,  the  attaching  of  them  to  the  court,  their 
education  in  Babylonish  fashion,  all  were  meant  for 
the  same  purpose, — to  denationalise  them,  and  strip 
them  of  their  religion,  and  thus  to  make  them  tools  for 
more  easily  governing  their  countiymon. 

Most  men  would  yield  to  the  influences,  and  be  so 
lapped  in  the  comforts  of  their  new  position  as  to 
become  pliable  as  wax  in  the  conqueror's  hands ;  but 
here  and  there  he  would  come  across  a  bit  of  stiffer 
stufp,  which  would  break  rather  than  bend.  Such  an 
obstinate  piece  of  humanity  was  found  in  the  Ilebrew 
youth,  of  some  fifteen  years,  whose  Hebrew  name  ('  God 
is  my  judge ')  expressed  a  truth  that  ruled  him,  when 
the  name  was  exchanged  for  one  that  invoked  Bel. 
It  took  some  firmness  for  a  captive  Ind,  without  friends 
or  influence,  to  take  Daniel's  stand;  for  the  motive 
of  his  desire  to  be  excused  from  taking  the  fare 
provided  can  only  have  been  religious.  He  was 
determined,  in  his  brave  young  heart,  not  to  '  defile ' 


42  THE  BOOK  OF  DANIEL  foH.i. 

himself  with  the  king's  meat.  The  phrase  points  to 
the  pollution  incurred  by  eating  things  offered  to  idols, 
and  does  not  imply  scrupulousness  like  that  of  Phari- 
saic times,  nor  necessarily  suggest  a  late  date  for  the 
book.  Probably  there  had  been  some  kind  of  religious 
consecration  of  the  food  to  Babylonian  gods,  and 
Daniel,  in  his  solitary  faithfulness,  was  carrying  out 
the  same  principles  which  Paul  afterwards  laid  down 
for  Corinthian  Christians  as  to  partaking  of  things 
offered  to  idols.  Similar  difficulties  are  siire  to 
emerge  in  analogous  cases,  and  do  so,  on  many  mission 
fields. 

The  motive  here,  then,  is  distinctly  religious.  Com- 
mon life  was  so  woven  in  with  idolatrous  worship  that 
every  meal  was  in  some  sense  a  sacrifice.  Therefore 
♦  Touch  not,  taste  not,  handle  not,'  was  the  inevitable 
dictate  .for  a  devout  heart.  Daniel  seems  to  have  been 
the  moving  spirit ;  but  as  is  generally  the  case,  he  was 
able  to  infuse  his  own  strong  convictions  into  his  com- 
panions, and  the  four  of  them  held  together  in  their 
protest.  The  great  lesson  from  t^e  incident  is  that 
religion  should  regulate  the  smallest  details  of  life, 
and  that  it  is  not  narrow  over-scrupulousness,  but 
fidelity  to  the  highest  duty,  when  a  man  sets  his  foot 
down  about  any  small  matter,  and  says,  '  No,  I  dare 
not  do  it,  little  as  it  is,  and  pleasant  as  it  might  be  to 
sense,  because  I  should  thereby  be  mixed  up  in  a 
practical  denial  of  my  God.'  '  So  did  not  I,  because  of 
the  fear  of  God '  (Neh.  v.  15),  is  a  motto  which  will 
require  from  many  a  young  man  abstinence  from 
many  things  which  it  would  be  much  easier  to 
accept. 

II.  This  young  confessor  was  as  prudent  as  he  was 
brave;  and  the  story  goes  on  to  show  how  wisely  he 


vs.  8-21]     YOUTHFUL  CONFESSORS  43 

played  his  part,  and  how  willing  he  was  to  accept  all 
working  compromises  which  might  smooth  his  way. 
He  did  not  at  all  want  to  pose  as  a  martyr,  and  had  no 
pleasure  in  making  a  noise.  The  favour  which  he  had 
won  with  the  high  officer  who  looked  after  the  lads 
before  their  formal  examination  (graduation  we  might 
call  it),  is  set  down  in  the  narrative  to  the  divine  favour ; 
but  that  favour  worked  by  means,  and  no  doubt  the 
lad  had  done  his  part  to  win  the  important  good 
opinion  of  his  superior.  The  more  firm  is  our  deter- 
mination to  take  no  step  beyond  the  line  of  duty,  the 
more  conciliatory  we  should  be.  But  many  people 
seem  to  think  that  heroism  is  shown  by  rudeness,  and 
that  if  we  are  afraid  that  we  shall  some  time  have  to 
say  *  No '  very  emphatically,  we  should  prepare  for 
it  by  a  great  many  preliminary  and  unnecessary 
negatives.  The  very  stern  need  for  parting  company, 
when  conscience  points  one  way  and  companions 
another,  is  a  reason  for  keeping  cordially  together 
whenever  we  can. 

'  The  prince  of  the  eunuchs '  made  a  very  reasonable 
objection.  He  had  been  appointed  to  see  after  the 
health  of  the  lads,  and  had  ample  means  at  his  dis- 
posal ;  and  if  they  lost  their  health  in  this  chase  after 
what  he  could  only  think  a  superstitious  fad,  the 
despot  whom  he  served  would  think  nothing  of  mak- 
ing him  answer  with  his  head.  His  fear  gives  a  strik- 
ing side-light  as  to  the  conditions  of  service  in  such  a 
court,  where  no  man's  head  was  firm  between  his 
shoulders.  Why  should  the  prince  of  the  eunuchs 
have  supposed  that  the  diet  asked  for  would  not 
nourish  the  lads?  It  was  that  of  the  bulk  of  men 
everywhere,  and  he  had  only  to  go  out  into  the  streets 
or  the  nearest  barrack  in  B{il)ylon  to  see  what  thews 


44  THE  BOOK  OF  DANIEL  [ch.i. 

and  muscles  could  be  nurtured  on  vegetable  diet  and 
■water.  But  whatever  the  want  of  ground  in  his 
objection,  it  was  enough  that  he  made  it.  Note  that 
he  puts  it  entirely  on  possible  harmful  results  to  him- 
self, and  that  silences  Daniel,  who  had  no  right  to  ask 
another  to  run  his  head  into  the  noose,  into  which  he 
was  ready  to  put  his  own,  if  necessary.  Martyrs  by 
proxy,  who  have  such  strong  convictions  that  they 
think  it  somebody  else's  duty  to  run  risk  for  them,  are 
by  no  means  unknown. 

This  boy  was  made  of  other  metal.  So,  apparently, 
he  gives  up  the  prince  of  the  eunuchs,  and  turns  to 
another  of  the  friends  whom  he  had  made  in  his  short 
captivity — the  person  in  whose  more  immediate  charge 
he  and  his  three  friends  were.  He  is  named  Melzar  in 
the  Authorised  Version ;  but  the  Revised  Version 
more  accurately  takes  that  to  be  a  name  of  office,  and 
translates  it  as  'steward.'  He  did  the  catering  for 
them,  and  was  sufficiently  friendly  to  listen  to  Daniel's 
reasonable  proposal  to  try  the  vegetable  diet  for 
*ten  days' — probably  meaning  an  indefinite  period, 
sufficiently  long  to  test  results,  which  a  literal  ten  days 
"would  perhaps  scarcely  be.  So  the  good-natured 
steward  let  the  lads  have  their  way,  much  wondering 
in  his  soul,  no  doubt,  why  they  should  take  as  much 
trouble  to  avoid  good  living  as  most  youths  would 
have  taken  to  get  it. 

III.  The  success  of  the  experiment  comes  next.  We 
do  not  need  to  suppose  a  miracle  as  either  wrought  or 
suggested  by  the  narrative.  The  issue  might  have 
taught  the  steward  a  wholesome  lesson  in  dietetics, 
■which  he  and  a  great  manj^  of  us  much  need.  *  A  man's 
life  consistcth  not  in  the  abundance  of  the  things 
"which  he  possesseth,'  and  his  bodily  life  consistcth  not 


vs.  8-21]     YOUTHFUL  CONFESSORS  45 

in  the  abundance  and  variety  of  the  things  that  he 
eateth.  The  teaching  of  this  lesson  is,  not  that 
vegetarianism  or  total  abstinence  is  obligatory,  for 
diet  is  here  regarded  only  as  part  of  idolatrous 
worship ;  but  certainly  a  secondary  conclusion,  fairly 
drawn  from  the  story,  is  that  vigorous  health  is  best 
kept  up  on  very  simple  fare.  Many  dinner-tables,  over 
which  God's  blessing  is  formally  asked,  are  spread  in 
such  a  fashion  as  it  is  hard  to  suppose  deserves  His 
blessing.  The  simpler  the  fare,  the  fewer  the  wants  ; 
the  fewer  the  wants,  the  greater  the  riches ;  the  freer 
the  life,  the  more  leisure  for  higher  pursuits,  and  the 
more  sound  the  bodily  health. 

But  the  rosy  faces  and  vigorous  health  of  Daniel  and 
his  friends  may  illustrate,  by  a  picturesque  example,  a 
large  truth — that  God  suffers  no  man  to  be  a  loser  by 
faithfulness,  and  more  than  makes  up  all  that  is 
surrendered  for  His  sake.  The  blessing  of  God  on 
small  means  makes  thena  fountains  of  truer  joy  than 
large  ones  unblessed.  No  man  hath  left  anything  for 
Christ's  sake  but  he  receives  a  hundredfold  in  this  life, 
if  not  in  the  actual  blessings  surrendered,  at  all  events 
in  the  peace  and  joy  of  heart  of  which  they  were 
supposed  to  be  bearers.  God  fills  places  emptied  by 
Himself,  and  those  emptied  by  us  for  His  sake. 

TY.  The  conscientious  abstinence  of  Daniel  had 
limits.  The  learning  of  the  'Chaldeans'  was  largely 
litualistic,  and  magic,  incantations,  divination,  and 
mythology  constituted  a  most  important  part  of  it. 
Did  not  the  conscience,  which  could  not  swallow 
idolatrous  food,  resent  being  forced  to  assimilate 
idolatrous  learning?  No;  for  all  that  learning  could 
be  acquired  by  a  faithful  monotheist,  and  could  be 
used  against  the   system  which  gave  it  birth.    Like 


46  THE  BOOK  OF  DANIEL  [ch.i. 

Moses,  or  like  the  young  Pharisee  Saul,  these  Jewish 
boys  nurtured  their  faith  by  knowledge  of  their 
enemies'  belief,  and  used  their  childhood's  lessons  as 
weapons  in  fighting  for  God's  truth.  It  is  not  every 
man's  duty  to  become  familiar  with  error,  or  to  master 
anti-Christian  systems.  But  if  it  become  ours,  we  are 
not  to  turn  away  from  the  task,  nor  to  doubt  that  God 
will  keep  His  own  truth  alight  in  our  minds,  ir  we 
realise  the  danger  of  the  position,  and  seek  to  cling  to 
Him. 

V.  So  we  have  the  last  scene  in  the  youths'  appear- 
ance before  Nebuchadnezzar.  A  three  years'  curriculum 
was  considered  necessary  to  turn  a  Jewish  boy  into  a 
Chaldean  expert,  fit  to  be  a  traitor  to  his  nation,  an 
apostate  from  his  God,  and  a  tool  of  the  tyrant.  So 
far  as  knowledge  of  the  priestly  and  astronomical 
science  went,  the  four  Hebrews  came  out  at  the  top  of 
the  listsl  The  great  king  himself,  with  that  personal 
interference  in  all  departments  which  makes  a  despot's 
life  so  burdensome,  put  them  through  their  paces,  and 
was  satisfied.  His  object  had  been  to  get  instruments 
with  which  he  could  work  on  the  Captivity,  and,  no 
doubt,  also  to  secure  servants  who  had  no  links  with 
anybody  in  Babylon.  Foreigners,  'kinless  loons,' 
are  favourites  with  despots,  for  plain  reasons.  But 
Nebuchadnezzar  could  not  fathom  the  hearts  of  the 
lads.  An  incarnation  of  unbridled  will  would  find  it 
difficult  to  understand  a  life  guided  by  conscience,  and 
religious  scruples  would  have  sounded  as  an  unknown 
tongue  to  him.  But  yet,  as  he  and  they  stood  face  to 
face,  who  was  stronger,  the  conqueror  or  the  youths 
who  feared  God,  and  none  besides?  They  were  in 
their  right  place  at  the  head  of  the  examination  lists. 
They  had  not  said,   'We  do  not  believe  in  all  this 


vs.  8-21]    YOUTHFUL  CONFESSORS  47 

rubbish,  and  we  are  not  going  to  trouble  ourselves  to 
master  it,'  but  they  had  set  themselves  determinedly 
to  work,  and  been  all  the  more  persevering  because  of 
their  objection  to  the  diet.  If  a  young  man  has  to  be 
singular  by  reason  of  his  religion,  let  him  be  singularly 
diligent  in  his  work,  and  seek  to  be  first,  not  merely 
for  his  own  glory,  but  for  the  sake  of  the  religion  which 
he  professes. 

*  Plain  living  and  high  thinking '  ought  to  go  together. 
England  and  America  have  many  names  carved  high 
on  their  annals,  and  written  deep  on  their  citizens' 
hearts,  who  have  nourished  a  sublime,  studious  youth 
in  poverty,  *  cultivating  literature  on  a  little  oatmeal,' 
and  who  all  their  lives  have  'scorned  delights  and  lived 
laborious  days.'  It  is  the  temper  which  is  most  likely 
to  succeed,  but  which,  whether  it  succeeds  or  not, 
brings  the  best  blessings  to  those  who  cultivate  it. 
Such  a  youth  will  generally  be  followed  by  an  honoured 
manhood  like  Daniel's,  but  will,  at  all  events,  be  its 
own  reward,  and  have  God's  blessing. 

'Daniel  continued  unto  the  first  year  of  king 
Cyrus.'  These  simple  words  contain  volumes.  Dur- 
ing all  the  troubles  of  the  nation,  from  the  king's 
insanity,  and  the  murders  of  his  successors,  amidst 
whirling  intrigues,  envies,  plots,  and  persecutions,  this 
one  man  stood  firm,  like  a  pillar  amid  blowing  sands. 
So  God  keeps  the  steadfast  soul  which  is  fixed  on  Him ; 
and  while  the  world  passeth  away,  and  the  fashion 
thereof,  he  that  doeth  the  will  of  God  abideth  for 
ever. 


THE  IMAGE  AND  THE  STONE 

'This  is  the  dream  ;  and  we  will  tell  the  interpretation  thereof  before  the  king. 
37.  Thou,  O  king,  art  a  king  of  kings:  for  the  God  of  heaven  hath  given  thco  a 
kingdom,  power,  and  strength,  and  glory.  38.  And  wheresoever  the  children  of 
men  dwell,  the  beasts  of  tiie  Held  and  the  fowls  of  the  heaven  hath  He  given  inLo 
thine  hand,  and  hath  made  thee  ruler  over  them  all.  Thou  art  this  head  of  gold. 
39.  And  after  thee  shall  arise  another  kingdom  inferior  to  thee,  and  another  third 
kingdom  of  brass,  which  shall  bear  rule  over  all  the  car(h.  10.  And  the  foxirth 
kingdom  shall  be  strong  as  iron :  forasmuch  as  iron  breaketh  in  pieces  and  sub- 
duotii  all  things :  and  as  iron  that  breaketh  all  these,  shall  it  break  in  pieces  and 
bruise.  41.  And  whereas  thou  saweat  the  feet  and  toes,  part  of  potters'  clay,  and 
part  of  iron,  the  kingdom  shall  bo  divided  ;  but  there  shall  be  in  it  of  the  strength 
of  the  iron,  forasmuch  as  thou  sawest  the  iron  mixed  with  miry  clay.  42.  And  as 
the  toes  of  the  feet  were  part  of  iron,  and  part  of  clay,  so  the  kingdom  shall  be 
partly  strong,  and  partly  broken.  43.  And  whereas  thou  sawest  iron  mixed  with 
miry  clay,  they  shall  mingle  themselves  with  the  seed  of  men  :  but  they  shall  not 
cleave  one  to  another,  even  as  iron  is  not  mixed  with  clay.  41.  And  in  the  dnys 
of  these  kings  shall  the  God  of  heaven  set  up  a  kingdom,  which  shall  never  be 
destroyed  :  and  the  kingdom  shall  not  be  left  to  other  people,  but  it  shall  break  in 
pieces  and  consume  all  these  kingdoms,  and  it  shall  stand  forever.  45.  Forasmuch 
as  thou  sawest  that  the  stone  was  cut  out  of  the  mountain  without  hands,  and 
th.at  it  brake  in  pieces  the  iron,  the  brass,  the  clay,  the  silver,  and  th.^  gold  ;  the 
great  God  hath  made  known  to  the  king  what  shall  come  to  pass  hereafter:  and 
the  dream  is  certain,  and  the  interpretation  thereof  sure.  46.  Then  the  king 
Nebuchadnezzar  fell  upon  his  face,  and  worshipped  Daniel,  and  commanded  that 
they  should  offer  on  oblation  and  sweet  odours  unto  him.  47.  The  king  answ(;red 
unto  Daniel,  and  said,  Of  a  truth  it  is,  that  your  God  is  a  God  of  gods,  and  a  Lord 
of  kings,  and' a  revealer  of  secrets,  seeing  thou  couldest  reveal  this  secret.  48.  Then 
the  king  made  Daniel  a  great  man,  and  gave  him  many  great  gifts,  and  made  him 
ruler  over  the  whole  province  of  Babylon,  and  chief  of  the  governors  over  all  the 
wise  men  of  Babylon.  49.  Then  Daniel  requested  of  the  king,  and  he  set  Shadrach, 
Meshach,  and  Abcd-ncgo,  over  the  alfairs  of  the  province  of  Babylon:  but  Daniel 
eat  in  the  gate  of  the  king.'— Daniel  ii.  36-49. 

The  colossal  imnge,  seen  by  Nebuchadnezzar  in  his 
dream,  was  a  reproduction  of  those  which  met  his 
waking  eyes,  and  still  remain  for  our  wonder  in  our 
museums.  The  mingled  materials  are  paralleled  in 
ancient  art.  The  substance  of  the  dream  is  no  less 
natural  than  its  form.  The  one  is  suggested  by  familiar 
sights ;  the  other,  by  pressing  anxieties.  What  more 
likely  than  that,  '  in  tlie  second  year  of  his  reign '  (v.  1), 
waking  thoughts  of  the  future  of  his  monarchy  should 
trouble  the  warrior-king,  scarcely  yet  firm  on  his 
throne,  and  should  repeat  themselves  in  nightly 
visions?  God  spoke  through  the  dream,  and  He  is 
not  wont  to  answer  questions  before  they  are  asked, 


vs.  36-49]  THE  IMAGE  AND  THE  STONE   49 

nor  to  give  revelations  to  men  on  points  which  they 
have  not  sought  to  solve.  We  may  be  sure  that 
Nebuchadnezzar's  dream  met  his  need. 

The  unreasonable  demand  that  the  'Chaldeans* 
should  show  the  dream  as  well  as  interpret  it,  fits 
the  character  of  the  king,  as  an  imperious  despot, 
intolerant  of  obstacles  to  his  will,  and  holding  human 
life  very  cheap.  Daniel's  knowledge  of  the  dream  and 
of  its  meaning  is  given  to  him  in  a  vision  by  night, 
which  is  the  method  of  divine  illumination  throughout 
the  book,  and  may  be  regarded  as  a  lower  stage  thereof 
than  the  communications  to  prophets  of  '  the  word  of 
the  Lord.' 

The  passage  falls  into  two  parts :  the  image  and  the 
stone. 

I.  The  Image. 

It  was  a  human  form  of  strangely  mingled  materials, 
of  giant  size  no  doubt,  and  of  majestic  aspect.  Bar- 
barous enough  it  would  have  looked  beside  the  marble 
lovelinesses  of  Greece,  but  it  was  quitelike  the  coarser  art 
which  sought  for  impressiveness  through  size  and  cost- 
liness. Other  people  than  Babylonian  sculptors  think 
that  bigness  is  greatness,  and  dearness  preciousness. 

This  image  embodied  what  is  now  called  a  philo- 
sophy of  history.  It  set  forth  the  fruitful  idea  of  a 
succession  and  unity  in  the  rise  and  fall  of  conquerors 
and  kingdoms.  The  four  empires  represented  by  it 
are  diverse,  and  yet  parts  of  a  whole,  and  each  follow- 
ing on  the  other.  So  the  truth  is  taught  that  history 
is  an  organic  whole,  however  unrelated  its  events  may 
appear  to  a  superficial  eye.  The  writer  of  this  book 
had  learned  lessons  far  in  advance  of  his  age,  and  not 
yet  fully  grasped  by  many  so-called  historians. 

But,  further,  the  human  figure  of  the  image  sets 

D 


50  THE  BOOK  OF  DANIEL         [ch.  ii. 

forth  all  these  kiugdoms  as  being  purely  the  work  of 
men.  Not  that  the  overruling  divine  providence  is 
ignored,  but  that  the  play  of  human  passions,  the  lust 
of  conquest  and  the  like,  and  the  use  of  human  means, 
such  as  armies,  are  emphasised. 

Again,  the  kingdoms  are  seen  in  their  brilliancy,  as 
they  would  naturally  appear  to  the  thoughts  of  a 
conqueror,  whose  highest  notion  of  glory  was  earthly 
dominion,  and  who  was  indifferent  to  the  suffering 
and  blood  through  which  he  waded  to  a  throne.  When 
the  same  kingdoms  are  shown  to  Daniel  in  chapter  vii. 
they  are  represented  by  beasts.  Their  cruelty  and  the 
destruction  of  life  which  they  caused  were  uppermost 
in  a  prophet's  view;  their  vulgar  splendour  dazzled  a 
king's  sleeping  eyes,  because  it  had  intoxicated  his 
waking  thoughts.  Much  worldly  glory  and  many  of 
its  aims  appear  as  precious  metal  to  dreamers,  but 
are  seen  by  an  illuminated  sight  to  be  bestial  and 
destructive. 

Once  more  there  is  a  steady  process  of  deterioration 
in  the  four  kingdoms.  Gold  is  followed  by  silver,  and 
that  by  brass,  and  that  by  the  strange  combination  of 
iron  and  clay.  This  may  simply  refer  to  the  diminution 
of  worldly  glory,  but  it  may  also  mean  deterioration, 
morally  and  otherwise.  Is  it  not  the  teaching  of 
Scripture  that,  unless  God  interpose,  society  will 
steadily  slide  downwards?  And  has  not  the  fact  been 
so,  wherever  the  brake  and  lever  of  revelation  have 
not  arrested  the  decline  and  effected  elevation?  We 
are  told  nowadays  of  evolution,  as  if  the  progress  of 
humanity  were  upwards;  but  if  you  withdraw  the 
influence  of  supernatural  revelation,  the  evidence  of 
power  in  manhood  to  work  itself  clear  of  limitations 
and  lower  forms  is  very  ambiguous  at  the  best — in 


vs.  36-49]  THE  IMAGE  AND  THE  STONE  51 

reference  to  morals,  at  all  events.  Evil  is  capable  of 
development,  as  well  as  good ;  and  perhaps  Nebuchad- 
nezzar's colossus  is  a  truer  representation  of  the  course 
of  humanity  than  the  dreams  of  modern  thinkers  who 
see  manhood  becoming  steadily  better  by  its  own  effort, 
and  think  that  the  clay  and  iron  have  inherent  power 
to  pass  into  fine  gold. 

The  question  of  the  identification  of  these  successive 
monarchies  does  not  fall  to  be  discussed  here.  But 
I  may  observe  that  the  definite  statement  of  verse 
44  ('  in  the  days  of  these  kings ')  seems  to  date  the  rise 
of  the  everlasting  kingdom  of  God  in  the  period  of  the 
last  of  the  four,  and  therefore  that  the  old  interpreta- 
tion of  the  fourth  kingdom  as  the  Roman  seems  the 
most  natural.  The  force  of  that  remark  may,  no 
doubt,  be  weakened  by  the  consideration  that  the  Old 
Testament  prophets'  perspective  of  the  future  brought 
the  coming  of  Messiah  into  immediate  juxtaposition 
with  the  limits  of  their  own  vision;  but  still  it  has 
force. 

The  allocation  of  each  part  of  the  symbol  is  of  less 
importance  for  us  than  the  lessons  to  be  drawn  from 
it  as  a  whole.  But  the  singular  amalgam  of  iron  and 
clay  in  the  fourth  kingdom  is  worth  notice.  No  sculptor 
or  metallurgist  could  make  a  strong  unity  out  of  such 
materials,  of  which  the  combination  could  only  be 
apparent  and  superficial.  The  fact  to  which  it  points 
is  the  artificial  unity  into  which  the  great  conquering 
empires  of  old  crushed  their  unfortunate  subject 
peoples,  who  were  hammered,  not  fused,  together. 
'They  shall  mingle  themselves  with  the  seed  of  men' 
(ver.  43),  may  either  refer  to  the  attempts  to  bring  about 
unity  by  marriages  among  different  races,  or  to  other 
vain  efforts  to  the  same  end.   To  obliterate  nationalities 


52  THE  BOOK  OF  DANIEL         [ch.ii. 

has  alwa}  s  been  the  conquering  despot's  effort,  from 
Nebuchadnezzar  to  the  Czar  of  Russia,  and  it  always 
fails.  This  is  the  weakness  of  these  huge  empires  of 
antiquity,  which  have  no  internal  cohesion,  and  tumble 
to  pieces  as  soon  as  some  external  bond  is  loosened. 
There  is  only  one  kingdom  which  has  no  disintegrating 
forces  lodged  in  it,  because  it  unites  men  individually 
to  its  king,  and  so  binds  them  to  one  another;  and 
that  is  the  kingdom  which  Nebuchadnezzar  saw  in  its 
destructive  aspect. 

II.  So  we  have  now  to  think  of  the  stone  cut  out 
without  hands. 

Three  things  are  specified  with  regard  to  it:  its 
origin,  its  duration,  and  its  destructive  energy.  The 
origin  is  heavenly,  in  sharp  contrast  to  the  human 
origin  of  the  kingdoms  symbolised  in  the  colossal  man. 
That  idea  is  twice  expressed  :  once  in  plain  words,  *  the 
God  of  heaven  shall  set  up  a  kingdom ' ;  and  once 
figuratively  as  being  cut  out  of  the  mountain  without 
hands.  By  the  mountain  we  are  probably  to  under- 
stand Zion,  from  which,  according  to  many  a  prophecy, 
the  Messiah  King  was  to  rule  the  earth  (Ps.  ii. ;  Isa.  ii.  3). 

The  fulfilment  of  this  prediction  is  found,  not  only 
in  the  supernatural  birth  of  Jesus  Christ,  but  in  the 
spread  of  the  gospel  without  any  of  the  weapons  and 
aids  of  human  power.  Twelve  poor  men  spoke,  and  the 
world  was  shaken  and  the  kingdoms  remoulded.  The 
seer  had  learned  the  omnipotence  of  ideas  and  the  weak- 
ness of  outward  force.  A  thought  from  God  is  stronger 
than  all  armies,  and  outconquers  conquerors.  By  the 
mystery  of  Christ's  Incarnation,  by  the  power  of  weak- 
ness in  the  preachers  of  the  Cross,  by  the  energies  of  the 
transforming  Spirit,  the  God  of  heaven  has  set  up  the 
kingdom.  'It  shall  never  be  destroyed.*  Its  divine  origin 


vs.  36-49]  THE  IMAGE  AND  THE  STONE  53 

guarantees  its  perpetual  duration.  The  kingdoms  of 
man's  founding,  whether  they  be  in  the  realm  of  thought 
or  of  outward  dominion,  'have  their  day,  and  cease  to  be,' 
but  the  kingdom  of  Christ  lasts  as  long  as  the  eternal  life 
of  its  King.  He  cannot  die  any  more,  and  He  cannot  live 
discrowned.  Other  forms  of  human  association  perish, 
as  new  conditions  come  into  play  which  antiquate  them ; 
but  the  kingdom  of  Jesus  is  as  flexible  as  it  is  firm,  and 
has  power  to  adapt  to  itself  all  conditions  in  which  men 
can  live.  It  will  outlast  earth,  it  will  fill  eternity ;  for 
when  He  '  shall  have  delivered  up  the  kingdom  to  His 
Father,'  the  kingdom,  which  the  God  of  heaven  set  up, 
will  still  continue. 

It '  shall  not  be  left  to  other  people.'  By  that,  seems 
to  be  meant  that  this  kingdom  will  not  be  like  those  of 
human  origin,  in  which  dominion  passes  from  one  race 
to  another,  but  that  Israel  shall  ever  be  the  happy 
subjects  and  the  dominant  race.  We  must  interpret 
the  words  of  the  spiritual  Israel,  and  remember  how  to 
be  Christ's  subject  is  to  belong  to  a  nation  who  are 
kings  and  priests. 

The  destructive  power  is  graphically  represented. 
The  stone,  detached  from  the  mountain,  and  apparently 
self -moved,  dashes  against  the  heterogeneous  mass  of 
iron  and  clay  on  which  the  colossus  insecurely  stands, 
and  down  it  comes  with  a  crash,  breaking  into  a 
thousand  fra^i  ents  as  it  falls.  'Like  the  chaff  of  the 
summer  threshingfloors'  (Daniel  ii.  35)  is  the  debris, 
which  is  whirled  out  of  sight  by  the  wind.  Christ  and 
His  kingdom  have  reshaped  the  world.  These  ancient, 
hideous  kingdoms  of  blood  and  misery  are  impossible 
now.  Christ  and  His  gospel  shattered  the  Koman 
empire,  and  cast  Europe  into  another  mould.  They 
have  destructive  work  to  do  yet,  and  as  surely  as  the 


54,  THE  BOOK  OF  DANIEL         [ch.ii. 

sun  rises  daily,  will  do  it.  The  things  that  can  be 
shaken  will  be  shaken  till  they  fall,  and  human  society 
will  never  obtain  its  stable  form  till  it  is  moulded 
throughout  after  the  pattern  of  the  kingdom  of 
Christ. 

The  vision  of  our  passage  has  no  reference  to  the 
quickening  power  of  the  kingdom;  but  the  best  way 
in  which  it  destroys  is  by  transformation.  It  slays  the 
old  and  lower  forms  of  society  by  substituting  the 
purer  which  flow  from  possession  of  the  one  Spirit. 
That  highest  glory  of  the  work  of  Christ  is  but  partially 
represented  here,  but  there  is  a  hint  in  Daniel  ii.  35, 
which  tells  that  the  stone  has  a  strange  vitality,  and 
can  grow,  and  does  grow,  till  it  becomes  an  earth-filling 
mountain. 

That  issue  is  not  reached  yet ;  but  '  the  dream  is 
certain.'  The  kingdom  is  concentrated  in  its  King,  and 
the  life  of  Jesus,  diffused  through  His  servants,  works 
to  the  increase  of  the  empire,  and  will  not  cease  till  the 
kingdoms  of  the  world  are  the  kingdoms  of  our  God 
and  of  His  Christ.  That  stone  has  vital  power,  and  if 
we  build  on  it  we  receive,  by  wonderful  impartation,  a 
kindred  derived  life,  and  become  '  living  stones.'  It  is 
laid  for  a  sure  foundation.  If  a  man  stumble  over  it 
while  it  lies  there  to  be  built  upon,  he  will  lame  and 
maim  himself.  But  it  will  one  day  have  motion  given 
to  it,  and,  falling  from  the  height  of  heaven,  when  He 
comes  to  judge  the  world  which  He  rules  and  has 
redeemed,  it  will  grind  to  powder  all  who  reject  the 
rule  of  the  everlasting  King  of  men. 


HARMLESS  FIRES 

'Then  Nebuchadnezzar  in  his  rage  and  fury  commanded  to  bring  Shadrach, 
Meshach,  and  Abed-ncgo.  Then  they  brought  these  men  before  the  king.  14. 
Nebuchadnezzar  spake  and  said  unto  them,  Is  it  true,  O  Shadrach,  Meshach,  and 
Abed-nego,  do  not  ye  serve  my  gods,  nor  worship  the  golden  image  which  I  have 
set  up?  15.  Now  if  ye  be  ready  that  at  what  time  ye  hear  the  sound  of  the  cornet, 
flute,  harp,  sackbut,  psaltery,  and  dulcimer,  and  all  kinds  of  musick,  ye  fall  down 
and  worship  the  image  which  I  have  made  ;  well :  but  if  ye  worship  not,  ye  shall 
be  cast  the  same  hour  into  the  midst  of  a  burning  fiery  furnace  ;  and  who  is  that 
God  that  shall  deliver  you  out  of  my  hands?  16.  Shadrach,  Meshach,  and  Abed- 
nego,  answered  and  said  to  the  king,  O  Nebuchadnezzar,  we  are  not  careful  to 
answer  thee  in  this  matter.  17.  If  it  be  so,  our  God  whom  we  serve  is  able  to 
deliver  us  from  the  burning  fiery  furnace,  and  He  will  deliver  us  out  of  thine  hand, 
O  king.  18.  But  if  not,  be  it  known  unto  thee,  O  king,  that  we  will  not  serve  thy 
gods,  nor  worship  the  golden  image  which  thou  hast  set  up.  19.  Then  was  Nebuch- 
adnezzar full  of  fury,  and  the  form  of  his  visage  was  changed  against  Shadrach, 
Meshach,  and  Abed-nego:  therefore  he  spake,  and  commanded  that  they  should 
heat  the  furnace  one  seven  times  more  than  it  was  wont  to  be  heated.  20.  And  he 
commanded  the  most  mighty  men  that  were  in  his  army  to  bind  Shadrach, 
Meshach,  and  Abed-nego,  and  to  cast  them  into  the  burning  fiery  furnace.  21. 
Then  these  men  were  bound  in  their  coats,  their  hosen,  and  their  hats,  and  their 
other  garments,  and  were  cast  into  the  midst  of  the  burning  fiery  furnace.  22. 
Therefore  because  the  king's  commandment  was  urgent,  and  the  furnace  exceeding 
hot,  the  flame  of  the  fire  slew  those  men  that  took  up  Shadrach,  Meshach,  and 
Abed-nego.  23.  And  these  three  men,  Shadrach,  Meshach,  and  Abed-nego,  fell 
down  bound  into  the  midst  of  the  burning  fiery  furnace.  24.  Then  Nebuchad- 
nezzar the  king  was  astonied,  and  rose  up  in  haste,  and  spake,  and  said  unto  his 
counsellors,  Did  not  we  cast  three  men  bound  into  the  midst  of  the  fire?  They 
answered  and  said  unto  the  king.  True,  O  king.  25.  He  answered  and  said,  Lo,  I 
see  four  men  loose,  walking  in  the  midst  of  the  fire,  and  they  have  no  hurt ;  and 
the  form  of  the  fourth  is  like  the  Son  of  God.'— Daniel  iii.  13-25. 

The  way  in  which  the  '  Chaldeans '  describe  the  three 
recusants,  betrays  their  motive  in  accusing  them. 
'  Certain  Jews  whom  thou  hast  set  over  the  affairs  of 
the  province  of  Babylon '  could  not  but  be  envied  and 
hated,  since  their  promotion  wounded  both  national 
pride  and  professional  jealousy.  The  form  of  the  accu- 
sation was  skilfully  calculated  to  rouse  a  despot's  rage. 
•  They  have  not  regarded  thee '  is  the  head  and  front  of 
their  offending.  The  inflammable  temper  of  the  king 
blazed  up  according  to  expectation,  as  is  the  way  with 
tyrants.  His  passion  of  rage  is  twice  mentioned  (vs.  13, 
19),  and  in  one  of  the  instances,  is  noted  as  distorting 
his  features.    What  a  picture  of  ungoverned  fury  as  of 


56  THE  BOOK  OF  DANIEL        [ch.iii. 

one  who  had  never  been  thwarted !  It  is  the  true  por- 
trait of  an  Eastern  despot. 

Where  was  Daniel  in  this  hour  of  danger?  His 
absence  is  not  accounted  for,  and  conjecture  is  useless ; 
but  the  fact  that  he  has  no  share  in  the  incident  seems 
to  raise  a  presumption  in  favour  of  the  disputed  his- 
torical character  of  the  Book,  which,  if  it  had  been 
fiction,  could  scarcely  have  left  its  hero  out  of  so 
brilliant  an  instance  of  faithfulness  to  Jehovah. 

Nebuchadnezzar's  vehement  address  to  the  three 
culprits  is  very  characteristic  and  instructive.  Fixed 
determination  to  enforce  his  mandate,  anger  which 
breaks  into  threats  that  were  by  no  means  idle,  and  a 
certain  wish  to  build  a  bridge  for  the  escape  of  ser- 
vants who  had  done  their  work  well,  are  curiously 
mingled  in  it.  His  question,  best  rendered  as  in  the 
Revised  Version,  *  Is  it  of  purpose  .  .  .  that  ye '  do  so 
and  so  ?  seems  meant  to  suggest  that  they  may  repair 
their  fault  by  pleading  inadvertence,  accident,  or  the 
like,  and  that  He  will  accept  the  transparent  excuse. 
The  renewed  offer  of  an  opportunity  of  worship  does 
not  say  what  will  happen  should  they  obey;  and  the 
omission  makes  the  clause  more  emphatic,  as  insisting 
on  the  act,  and  slurring  over  the  self-evident  result. 

On  the  other  hand,  in  the  next  clause  the  act  is 
slightly  touched  ('if  ye  worship  not');  and  all  the 
stress  comes  on  the  grim  description  of  the  con- 
sequence. This  monarch,  who  has  been  accustomed 
to  bend  men's  wills  like  reeds,  tries  to  shake  these 
three  obstinate  rebels  by  terror,  and  opens  the  door 
of  the  furnace,  as  it  were,  to  let  them  hear  it  roar.  He 
finishes  with  a  flash  of  insolence  which,  if  not  blas- 
phemy, at  least  betrays  his  belief  that  he  was  stronger 
than  any  god  of  his  conquered  subject  peoples. 


Yi.  13-25]  HARMLESS  FIRES  57 

But  the  main  point  to  notice  in  this  speech  is  the 
unconscious  revelation  of  his  real  motive  in  demand- 
ing the  act  of  worship.  The  crime  of  the  three  was 
not  that  they  worshipped  wrongly,  but  that  they  dis- 
obeyed Nebuchadnezzar.  He  speaks  of  '  my  gods,'  and 
of  the  '  image  which  I  have  set  up.'  Probably  it  was 
an  image  of  the  god  of  the  Babylonian  pantheon  whom 
he  took  for  his  special  patron,  and  was  erected  in  com- 
memoration of  some  victorious  campaign. 

At  all  events,  the  worship  required  was  an  act 
of  obedience  to  him,  and  to  refuse  it  was  rebellion. 
Idolatry  is  tolerant  of  any  private  opinions  about 
gods,  and  intolerant  of  any  refusal  to  obey  authority 
in  worship.  So  the  early  Christians  were  thrown  to 
the  lions,  not  because  they  worshipped  Jesus,  but 
because  they  would  not  sacrifice  at  the  Emperor's 
command.  It  is  not  only  heathen  rulers  who  have 
confounded  the  spheres  of  civil  and  religious  obedi- 
ence. Nonconformity  in  England  was  long  identified 
with  disloyalty ;  and  in  many  so  -  called  Christian 
countries  to-day  a  man  may  think  what  he  likes,  and 
worship  as  he  pleases  in  his  chamber,  if  only  he  will 
decently  comply  with  authority  and  pretend  to  unite 
in  religious  ceremonies,  which  those  who  appoint  and 
practise  them  observe  with  tongue  in  cheek. 

But  we  may  draw  another  lesson  from  this  truculent 
apostle  of  his  god.  He  is  not  the  only  instance  of 
apparent  religious  zeal  which  is  at  bottom  nothing 
but  masterfulness.  '  You  shall  worship  my  god,  not 
because  he  is  God,  but  because  he  is  mine.'  That  is 
the  real  meaning  of  a  great  deal  which  calls  itself 
'  zeal  for  the  Lord.'  The  zealot's  own  will,  opinions, 
fancies,  are  crammed  down  other  people's  throats, 
and  the   insult   in    not   thinking    or   worshipping  as 


58  THE  BOOK  OF  DANIEL        [ch.ih. 

he  does,  is  worse  in  his  eyes  than  the  offence  against 
God. 

The  kind  of  furnace  in  which  recusants  are  roasted 
has  changed  since  Nebuchadnezzar's  time,  and  what  is 
called  persecution  for  religion  is  out  of  fashion  now. 
But  every  advance  in  the  application  of  Christian  prin- 
ciple to  social  and  civil  life  brings  a  real  martyrdom  on 
its  advocates.  Every  audacious  refusal  to  bow  to  the 
habits  or  opinions  of  the  majority,  is  visited  by  conse- 
quences which  only  the  martyr  spirit  will  endure. 
Despots  have  no  monopoly  of  imperious  intolerance. 
A  democracy  is  more  cruel  and  more  impatient  of 
singularity,  and  especially  of  religious  singularity, 
than  any  despot. 

England  and  America  have  no  need  to  fear  the  old 
forms  of  religious  persecution.  In  both,  a  man  may 
profess  and  proclaim  any  kind  of  religion  or  of  no 
religion.  But  in  both,  the  advance  guard  of  the 
Christian  Church,  which  seeks  to  apply  Christ's  teach- 
ings more  rigidly  to  individual  and  social  life,  has  to 
face  obloquy,  ostracism,  misrepresentation,  from  the 
world  and  the  fossil  church,  for  not  serving  their  gods, 
nor  worshipping  the  golden  image  which  they  have  set 
up.  Martyrs  will  be  needed  and  persecutors  will  exist 
till  the  world  is  Christian. 

How  did  the  three  confessors  meet  this  rumble  of 
thunder  about  their  ears?  The  quiet  determination 
of  their  reply  is  very  striking  and  beautiful.  It  is 
perfectly  loyal,  and  perfectly  unshaken.  '  We  have  no 
need  to  answer  thee '  (Revised  Version).  '  It  is  ill  sitting 
at  Rome  and  striving  with  the  Pope.'  Nebuchad- 
nezzar's palace  was  not  precisely  the  place  to  dispute 
with  Nebuchadnezzar ;  and  as  his  logic  was  only  '  Do 
as  I  bid  you,  or  burn,'  the  sole  reply  possible  was, '  We 


TB.  13-25]  HARMLESS  FIRES  59 

will  not  do  as  you  bid,  and  we  will  burn.'  The  'If  which 
is  immediately  spoken  is  already  in  the  minds  of  the 
speakers,  when  they  say  that  they  do  not  need  to  answer. 
They  think  that  God  will  take  up  the  taunt  which  ended 
the  king's  tirade.  Beautifully  they  are  silent,  and  refer 
the  blusterer  to  God,  whose  voice  they  believe  that  He 
will  hear  in  His  deed.  '  But  Thou  shalt  answer,  Lord, 
for  me,'  is  the  true  temper  of  humble  faith,  dumb 
before  power  as  a  sheep  before  her  shearers,  and  yet 
confident  that  the  meek  will  not  be  left  unviiidicated. 
Let  us  leave  ourselves  in  God's  hands ;  and  when  con- 
science accuses,  or  the  world  maligns  or  threatens,  let 
us  be  still,  and  feel  that  we  have  One  to  speak  for  us, 
and  so  we  may  hold  ovir  peace. 

The  rendering  of  verse  17  is  doubtful,  but  the  general 
meaning  is  clear.  The  brave  speakers  have  hope  that 
God  will  rebuke  the  king's  taunt,  and  will  prove  Him- 
self to  be  able  to  deliver  out  of  his  hand.  So  they 
repeat  his  very  words  with  singular  boldness,  and 
contradict  him  to  his  face.  They  have  no  absolute 
certainty  of  deliverance,  but  whether  it  comes  or  not 
will  make  no  manner  of  difference  to  them.  They 
have  absolute  certainty  as  to  duty ;  and  so  they  look 
the  furious  tyrant  right  in  the  eyes,  and  quietly  say, 
•  We  will  not  serve  thy  gods.'  Nothing  like  that  had 
ever  been  heard  in  those  halls. 

Duty  is  sovereign.  The  obligation  to  resist  all 
temptations  to  go  against  conscience  is  unaffected 
by  consequences.  There  may  be  hope  that  God  will 
not  suffer  us  to  be  harmed,  but  whether  He  does  or  not 
should  make  no  difference  to  our  fixed  resolve.  That 
temper  of  lowly  faith  and  inflexible  faithfulness  which 
these  Hebrews  showed  in  the  supreme  moment,  when 
they  took  their  lives  in  their  hands,  may  be  as  nobly 


60  THE  BOOK  OF  DANIEL       [ch.iii. 

illustrated  in  the  small  difficulties  of  our  peaceful  lives. 
The  same  laws  shape  the  curves  of  the  tiny  ripples  in  a 
basin  and  of  the  Atlantic  rollers.  No  man  who  cannot 
say  '  I  will  not '  in  the  face  of  frowns  and  dangers,  be 
they  what  they  may,  and  stick  to  it,  will  do  his  part. 
He  who  has  conquered  regard  for  personal  conse- 
quences, and  does  not  let  them  deflect  his  course  a' 
hairsbreadth,  is  lord  of  the  world. 

How  small  Nebuchadnezzar  was  by  the  side  of  his 
three  victims !  How  empty  his  threats  to  men  who 
cared  nothing  whether  they  burned  or  not,  so  long  as 
they  did  not  apostatise!  What  can  the  world  do 
against  a  man  who  says,  *  It  is  all  one  to  me  whether 
I  live  or  die ;  I  will  not  worship  at  your  shrines  ? '  The 
fire  of  the  furnace  is  but  painted  flames  to  such  an  one. 

The  savage  punishment  intended  for  the  audacious 
rebels  is  abundantly  confirmed  as  common  in  Babylon 
by  the  inscriptions,  which  may  be  seen  quoted  by  many 
commentators.  The  narrative  is  exceedingly  graphic. 
We  see  the  furious  king,  with  features  inflamed  with 
passion.  We  hear  his  hoarse,  angry  orders  to  heat  the 
furnace  seven  times  hotter,  which  he  forgot  would  be  a 
mercy,  as  shortening  the  victims'  agonies.  We  see  the 
swift  execution  of  the  commands,  and  the  unresisting 
martyrs  bound  as  they  stood,  and  dragged  away  by 
the  soldiers  to  the  near  furnace,  the  king  following. 
Its  shape  is  a  matter  of  doubt.  Probably  the  three 
were  thrown  in  from  above,  and  so  the  soldiers  were 
caught  by  the  flames. 

'  And  these  three  men  .  .  .  fell  down  bound  into  the 
midst  of  the  burning  fiery  furnace.'  Their  helplessness 
and  desperate  condition  are  pathetically  suggested  by 
that  picture,  which  might  well  be  supposed  to  be  the 
last  of  them  that  miortal  eyes  would  see.     Down  into 


Ts.  13-26]  HARMLESS  FIRES  61 

the  glowing  mass,  like  chips  of  wood  into  Vesuvius, 
tbey  sank.  The  king  sitting  watching,  to  glut  his  fury 
by  the  sight  of  their  end,  had  some  way  of  looking  into 
the  core  of  the  flames. 

The  story  shifts  its  point  of  view  with  very  pictur- 
esque abruptness  after  verse  23.  The  vaunting  king 
shall  tell  what  he  saw,  and  thereby  convict  himself  of 
insolent  folly  in  challenging  '  any  god '  to  deliver  out 
of  his  hand.  He  alone  seems  to  have  seen  the  sight, 
which  he  tells  to  his  courtiers.  The  bonds  were  gone, 
and  the  men  walking  free  in  the  fire,  as  if  it  had  been 
their  element.  Three  went  in  bound,  four  walk  there 
at  large ;  and  the  fourth  is  *  like  a  son  of  the  gods,' 
by  which  expression  Nebuchadnezzar  can  have  meant 
nothing  more  than  he  had  learned  from  his  religion ; 
namely,  that  the  gods  had  offspring  of  superhuman 
dignity.  He  calls  the  same  person  an  angel  in  Daniel 
iii.  28.  He  speaks  there  as  the  three  would  have 
spoken,  and  here  as  Babylonian  mythology  spoke. 

But  the  great  lesson  to  be  gathered  from  this  miracle 
of  deliverance  is  simply  that  men  who  sacrifice  them- 
selves for  God  find  in  the  sacrifice  abundant  blessing. 
They  may,  or  may  not,  be  delivered  from  the  external 
danger.  Peter  was  brought  out  of  prison  the  night 
before  his  intended  martyrdom ;  James,  the  brother  of 
John,  was  slain  with  the  sword,  but  God  was  equally 
near  to  both,  and  both  were  equally  delivered  from 
'  Herod  and  from  all  the  expectation  of  the  people  of 
the  Jews.'  The  disposal  of  the  outward  event  is  in  His 
hands,  and  is  a  comparatively  small  matter.  But  no 
furnace  into  which  a  man  goes  because  he  will  be  true 
to  God,  and  will  not  yield  up  his  conscience,  is  a  tenth 
part  so  hot  as  it  seems,  and  it  will  do  no  real  harm.  The 
fire  burns  bonds,  but  not  Christ's  servants,  consuming 


62  THE  BOOK  OF  DANIEL         [ch.v. 

many  things  that  entangled,  and  setting  them  free. 
'  I  will  walk  at  liberty :  for  I  seek  Thy  precepts ' — even 
if  we  have  to  walk  in  the  furnace.  No  trials  faced  in 
obedience  to  God  will  be  borne  alone.  'When  thou 
passest  through  the  waters,  I  will  be  with  thee ;  .  .  . 
when  thou  walkest  through  the  fire,  thou  shalt  not  be 
burned.' 

The  form  which  Nebuchadnezzar  saw  amid  the  flame, 
as  invested  with  more  than  human  majesty,  may  have 
been  but  one  of  the  ministering  spirits  sent  forth  to 
minister  to  the  martyrs — the  embodiment  of  the  divine 
power  which  kept  the  flames  from  kindling  upon  them. 
But  we  have  Jesus  for  our  Companion  in  all  trials,  and 
His  presence  makes  it  possible  for  us  to  pass  over  hot 
ploughshares  with  unblistered  feet ;  to  bathe  our  hands 
in  fire  and  not  feel  the  pain ;  to  accept  the  sorest  con- 
sequences of  fidelity  to  Him,  and  count  them  as  '  not 
worthy  to  be  compared  with  the  glory  which  shall  be 
revealed,'  and  is  made  more  glorious  through  these 
light  afflictions.  A  present  Christ  will  never  fail  His 
servants,  and  will  make  the  furnace  cool  even  when  its 
fire  is  fiercest. 

MENE,  TEKEL,  PERES 

•Then  Daniel  answered  and  said  before  the  king.  Let  thy  gifts  be  to  thyself, 
and  give  thy  rewards  to  another ;  yet  I  will  read  the  writing  unto  the  king,  and 
mjike  known  to  him  the  interpretation.  18.  O  thoa  king,  the  most  high  God  gave 
Nebuchadnezzar  thy  father  a  kingdom,  and  majesty,  and  glory,  and  honour: 
19.  And  for  the  majesty  that  he  gave  him,  all  people,  nations,  and  languages, 
trembled  and  feared  before  him :  whom  he  would  he  slew ;  and  whom  he  would 
he  kept  alive;  and  whom  he  would  he  set  up;  and  whom  he  would  he  pub 
down.  20.  But  when  his  heart  was  lifted  up,  and  his  mind  hardened  in  pride,  he 
was  deposed  from  his  kingly  throne,  and  they  took  his  glory  from  him  :  21.  And  ho 
was  driven  from  the  sons  of  men  ;  and  his  heart  was  made  like  the  beasts,  and  his 
dwelling  was  with  the  wild  asses:  they  fed  him  with  grass  like  oxen,  and  his 
body  was  wet  with  the  dew  of  heaven  ;  till  he  knew  that  the  most  high  God  ruled 
in  the  kingdom  of  men,  and  that  he  appointelh  over  it  whomsoever  he  will. 
22.  And  thou  his  son,  O  Bclshazzar,  hast  not  huinhlod  thine  heart,  though  thou 
knewestall  this;  23.  But  hast  lifted  up  thyself  against  the  Lord  of  Heaven;  and 
they  have  brought  the  vessels  of  his  house  before  thee,  and  thou,  and  thy  lords, 


vs.  17-31]       MENE,  TEKEL,  PERES  68 

thy  wives,  and  thy  concubines,  have  drunk  wine  in  them ;  and  thou  hast  praised 
the  gods  of  silver,  and  gold,  of  brass,  iron,  wood,  and  stone,  which  see  not,  nor  hear, 
nor  know  :  and  the  God  in  whose  hand  thy  breath  is,  and  whose  are  all  thy  ways, 
hast  thou  not  glorified :  24.  Then  was  the  part  of  the  hand  sent  from  him ;  and 
this  writing  was  written.  25.  And  this  is  the  writing  that  was  written,  'Mene, 
Mene,  Tekel,  Upharsin.'  26.  This  is  the  interpretation  of  the  thing:  Mene; 
God  hath  numbered  thy  kingdom,  and  finished  it.  27.  Tekel;  Thou  art  weighed 
in  the  balances,  and  art  found  wanting.  28.  Peres  ;  Thy  kingdom  is  divided,  and 
given  to  the  Medes  and  Persians.  29.  Then  commanded  Belshazzar,  and  they 
clothed  Daniel  with  scarlet,  and  put  a  chain  of  gold  about  his  neck,  and  made  a 
proclamation  concerning  him,  that  he  should  be  the  third  ruler  in  the  kingdom. 
30.  In  that  night  was  Belshazzar  the  king  of  the  Chaldeans  slain.  31.  And  Darius 
the  Median  took  the  kingdom,  being  about  threescore  and  two  years  old.'— 
Daniel  v.  17-31. 

Belshazzar  is  now  conceded  to  have  been  a  historical 
personage,  the  son  of  the  last  monarch  of  Babylon,  and 
the  other  name  in  the  narrative  which  has  been  treated 
as  erroneous — namely,  Darius — has  not  been  found  to 
be  mentioned  elsewhere,  but  is  not  thereby  proved  to 
be  a  blunder.  For  why  should  it  not  be  possible  for 
Scripture  to  preserve  a  name  that  secular  history  has 
not  yet  been  ascertained  to  record,  and  why  must  it 
always  be  assumed  that,  if  Scripture  and  cuneiform 
or  other  documents  differ,  it  is  Scripture  that  must  go 
to  the  wall  ? 

We  do  not  deal  with  the  grim  picture  of  the  drunken 
orgy,  turned  into  abject  terror  as  'the  fingers  of  a 
man's  hand'  came  forth  out  of  empty  air,  and  in 
the  full  blaze  of  'the  candlestick'  wrote  the  illegible 
signs.  There  is  something  blood-curdling  in  the 
visibility  of  but  a  part  of  the  hand  and  its  busy 
writing.  Whose  was  the  body,  and  where  was  it? 
No  wonder  if  the  riotous  mirth  was  frozen  into  awe, 
and  the  wine  lost  flavour.  Nor  need  we  do  more  than 
note  the  craven-hearted  flattery  addressed  to  Daniel 
by  the  king,  who  apparently  had  never  heard  of  him 
till  the  queen  spoke  of  him  just  before.  We  have  to 
deal  with  the  indictment,  the  sentence,  and  the  execu- 
tion. 

I.  The  indictment.    Daniel's  tone  is  noticeably  stern. 


64  THE  BOOK  OF  DANIEL         [ch.v. 

He  has  no  reverential  preface,  no  softening  of  his 
message.  His  words  are  as  if  cut  with  steel  on  the 
rock.  He  brushes  aside  the  promises  of  vulgar  decora- 
tions and  honours  with  undisguised  contempt,  and 
goes  straight  to  his  work  of  rousing  a  torpid  con- 
science. 

Babylon  was  the  embodiment  and  type  of  the  god- 
less world-power,  and  Belshazzar  was  the  incarnation 
of  the  spirit  which  made  Babylon.  So  Daniel's  indict- 
ment gathers  together  the  main  forms  of  sin,  which 
cleave  to  every  godless  national  or  individual  life. 
And  he  begins  with  that  feather-brained  frivolity 
which  will  learn  nothing  by  example.  Nebuchad- 
nezzar's fate  might  have  taught  his  successors  what 
came  of  God-forgetting  arrogance,  and  attributing 
success  to  oneself;  and  his  restoration  might  have 
been  an  object-lesson  to  teach  that  devout  recognition 
of  the  Most  High  as  sovereign  was  the  beginning  of  a 
king's  prosperity  and  sanity.  But  Belshazzar  knew 
all  this,  and  ignored  it  all.  Was  he  singular  in  that  ? 
Is  not  the  world  full  of  instances  of  the  ruin  that 
attends  godlessness,  which  yet  do  not  check  one 
godless  man  in  his  career  ?  The  wrecks  lie  thick 
on  the  shore,  but  their  broken  sides  and  gaunt 
skeletons  are  not  warnings  sufficient  to  keep  a  thou- 
sand other  ships  from  steering  right  on  to  the  shoals. 
Of  these  godless  lives  it  is  true,  'This  their  way  is 
their  folly;  yet  their  posterity  approve  their  say- 
ings,* and  their  doings,  and  say  and  do  them  over 
again.  Incapacity  to  learn  by  example  is  a  mark  of 
godless  lives. 

Further,  Belshazzar  'lifted  up'  himself  'against  the 
Lord  of  heaven,'  and  '  glorified  not  Him  in  whose  hand 
was  his  breath  and  whose  were  all  his  ways.'    The  very 


vs.  17-31]       MENE,  TEKEL,  PERES  65 

essence  of  all  sin  is  that  assertion  of  self  as  Lord,  as 
sufficient,  as  the  director  of  one's  path.  To  make 
myself  my  centre,  to  depend  on  myself,  to  enthrone 
my  own  will  as  sovereign,  is  to  fly  in  the  face  of  nature 
and  fact,  and  is  the  mother  of  all  sin.  To  live  to  self  is 
to  die  while  we  live ;  to  live  to  God  is  to  live  even  while 
we  die.  Nations  and  individuals  are  ever  tempted  thus 
to  ignore  God,  and  rebelliously  to  say,  '  Who  is  Lord 
over  us?*  or  presumptuously  to  think  themselves 
architects  of  their  own  fortunes,  and  sufficient  for 
their  own  defence.  Whoever  yields  to  that  temptation 
has  let  the  'prince  of  the  devils'  in,  and  the  inferior 
evil  spirits  will  follow.  Positive  acts  are  not  needed ; 
the  negative  omission  to  •  glorify '  the  God  of  our  life 
binds  sin  on  us. 

Further,  Belshazzar,  the  type  of  godlessness,  had 
desecrated  the  sacrificial  vessels  by  using  them  for 
his  drunken  carouse,  and  therein  had  done  just  what 
we  do  when  we  take  the  powers  of  heart  and  mind 
and  will,  which  are  meant  to  be  filled  with  affections, 
thoughts,  and  purposes,  that  are  *an  odour  of  a  sweet 
smell,  well-pleasing  to  God,'  and  desecrate  them  by 
pouring  from  them  libations  before  creatures.  Is  not 
love  profaned  when  it  is  lavished  on  men  or  women 
without  one  reference  to  God?  Is  not  the  intellect 
desecrated  when  its  force  is  spent  on  finite  objects 
of  thought,  and  never  a  glance  towards  God?  Is 
not  the  will  prostituted  from  its  high  vocation  when 
it  is  used  to  drive  the  wheels  of  a  God-ignoring 
life? 

The  coin  bears  the  image  and  superscription  of  the 
true  king.  It  is  treason  to  God  to  render  it  to  any 
paltry  'Caesar'  of  our  own  coronation.  Belshazzar 
was  an  avowed  idolater,  but  many  of  us  are  worshipping 

E 


66  THE  BOOK  OF  DANIEL         [ch.v. 

gods  *  which  see  not,  nor  hear,  nor  know '  as  really  as 
he  did.  We  cannot  but  do  so,  if  we  are  not  worshipping 
God ;  for  men  must  have  some  person  or  thing  which 
they  regard  as  their  supreme  good,  to  which  the 
current  of  their  being  sets,  which,  possessed,  makes 
them  blessed ;  and  that  is  our  god,  whether  we  call  it 
so  or  not. 

Further,  Belshazzar  was  carousing  while  the  Medes 
and  Persians  were  ringing  Babylon  round,  and  his 
hand  should  have  been  grasping  a  sword,  not  a  wine- 
cup.  Drunkenness  and  lust,  which  sap  manhood,  are 
notoriously  stimulated  by  peril,  as  many  a  shipwreck 
tells  when  desperate  men  break  open  the  spirit  casks, 
and  go  down  to  their  death  intoxicated,  and  as  many  an 
epidemic  shows  when  morality  is  flung  aside,  and  mad 
vice  rules  and  reels  in  the  streets  before  it  sinks  down 
to  die.  A  nation  or  a  man  that  has  shaken  off  God  will 
not  long  keep  sobriety  or  purity. 

II.  After  the  stern  catalogue  of  sins  comes  the 
tremendous  sentence.  Daniel  speaks  like  an  embodied 
conscience,  or  like  an  avenging  angel,  with  no  word  of 
pity,  and  no  effort  to  soften  or  dilute  the  awful  truth. 
The  day  for  wrapping  up  grim  facts  in  muffled  words 
was  past.  Now  the  only  thing  to  be  done  was  to  bare 
the  sword,  and  let  its  sharp  edge  cut.  The  inscription, 
as  given  in  verse  25,  is  simply  *  Numbered,  numbered, 
weighed  and  breakings.'  The  variation  in  verse  28 
(Peres)  is  the  singular  of  the  noun  used  in  the  plural 
in  verse  25,  with  the  omission  of  '  U,'  which  is  merely 
the  copulative  'and.'  The  disjointed  brevity  adds  to 
the  force  of  the  words.  Apparently,  they  were  not 
written  in  a  character  which  'the  king's  wise  men' 
could  read,  and  probably  were  in  Aramaic  letters  as 
well  as  language,  which  would  be  familiar  to  Daniel. 


vs.  17-31]       MENE,  TEKEL,  PERES  67 

Of  course,  a  play  on  the  word  '  Peres '  suggests  the 
Persian  as  the  agent  of  the  hreahing.  Daniel  simply 
supplied  the  personal  application  of  the  oracular  writ- 
ing. He  fits  the  cap  on  the  king's  head.  'God  hath 
numbered  i/i?/.  kingdom  .  .  .  thou  art  weighed  .  .  .  thy 
kingdom  is  divided '  (broken). 

These  three  fatal  words  carry  in  them  the  summing 
up  of  all  divine  judgment,  and  will  be  rung  in  the  ears 
of  all  who  bring  it  on  themselves.  Belshazzar  is  a  type 
of  the  end  of  every  godless  world-power  and  of  every 
such  individual  life.  'Numbered' — for  God  allows  to 
each  his  definite  time,  and  when  its  sum  is  complete, 
down  falls  the  knife  that  cuts  the  threads.  '  Weighed ' 
— for  'after  death  the  judgment,'  and  a  godless  life, 
when  laid  in  the  balance  which  His  hand  holds,  is  '  alto- 
gether lighter  than  vanity.'  '  Breakings ' — for  not  only 
will  the  godless  life  be  torn  away  from  its  possessions 
with  much  laceration  of  heart  and  spirit,  but  the  man 
himself  will  be  broken  like  some  earthen  vessel  com- 
ing into  sharp  collision  with  an  express  engine.  Bel- 
shazzar saw  the  handwriting  on  the  same  night  in 
which  it  was  carried  out  in  act ;  we  see  it  long  before, 
and  we  can  read  it.  But  some  of  us  are  mad  enough 
to  sit  unconcerned  at  the  table,  and  go  on  with  the 
orgy,  though  the  legible  letters  are  gleaming  plain  on 
the  wall. 

III.  The  execution  of  the  sentence  need  not  occupy 
us  long.  Belshazzar  so  little  realised  the  facts,  that 
he  issued  his  order  to  deck  out  Daniel  in  the  tawdry 
pomp  he  had  promised  him,  as  if  a  man  with  such  a 
message  would  be  delighted  with  purple  robes  and 
gold  chains,  and  made  him  third  ruler  of  the  kingdom 
which  he  had  just  declared  was  numbered  and  ended 
by  God.    The  force  of  folly  could  no  further  go.    No 


68  THE  BOOK  OF  DANIEL        [ch.  vi. 

wonder  that  the  hardy  invaders  swept  such  an  im- 
becile from  his  throne  without  a  struggle!  His  blood 
was  red  among  the  lees  of  the  wine-cups,  and  the 
ominous  writing  could  scarcely  have  faded  from  the 
wall  when  the  shouts  of  the  assailants  were  heard, 
the  palace  gates  forced,  and  the  half-drunken  king, 
alarmed  too  late,  put  to  the  sword.  'He  that,  being 
often  reproved,  hardeneth  his  neck  shall  suddenly  be 
destroyed,  and  that  without  remedy.' 


A  TRIBUTE  FROM  ENEMIES 

Then  said  these  men.  We  shall  not  find  any  occasion  against  this  Daniel,  except 
we  find  it  against  him  concerning  the  law  of  his  God.'— Daniel  vi.  5. 

Daniel  was  somewhere  about  ninety  years  old  when 
he  was  cast  to  the  lions.  He  had  been  for  many  years 
the  real  governor  of  the  whole  empire ;  and,  of  course, 
in  such  a  position  had  incurred  much  hatred  and 
jealousy.  He  was  a  foreigner  and  a  worshipper  of 
another  God,  and  therefore  was  all  the  more  unpopular, 
as  a  Brahmin  would  be  in  England  if  he  were  a  Cabinet 
Minister.  He  was  capable  and  honest,  and  therefore 
all  the  incompetent  and  all  the  knavish  officials  would 
recognise  in  him  their  natural  enemy.  So,  hostile 
intrigues,  which  grow  quickly  in  courts,  especially  in 
Eastern  courts,  sprung  up  round  him,  and  his  sub- 
ordinates laid  their  heads  together  in  order  to  ruin 
him.  They  say,  in  the  words  of  my  text,  •  We  cannot 
find  any  holes  to  pick.  There  is  only  one  way  to  put 
him  into  antagonism  to  the  law,  and  that  is  by  making 
a  law  which  shall  be  in  antagonism  to  God's  law.'  And 
so  they  scheme  to  have  the  mad  regulation  enacted, 
which,  in  the  sequel  of  the  story,  we  find  was  enforced. 
These  intriguers  say,  '  We  shall  not  find  any  occasion 


V.5]       A  TRIBUTE  FROM  ENEMIES  69 

against  this  Daniel,  except  we  find  it  against  him  con- 
cerning the  law  of  his  God.' 

Now,  then,  if  we  look  at  that  confession,  wrung  from 
the  lips  of  malicious  observers,  we  may,  I  think,  get 
two  or  three  lessons. 

I.  First,  note  the  very  unfavourable  soil  in  which  a 
character  of  singular  beauty  and  devout  consecration 
may  be  rooted  and  grow. 

What  sort  of  a  place  was  that  court  where  Daniel 
was  ?  Half  shambles  and  half  pigsty.  Luxury,  sen- 
suality, lust,  self-seeking,  idolatry,  ruthless  cruelty, 
and  the  like  were  the  environment  of  this  man.  And 
in  the  middle  of  these  there  grew  up  that  fair  flower  of 
a  character,  pure  and  stainless,  by  the  acknowledgment 
of  enemies,  and  in  which  not  even  accusers  could  find  a 
speck  or  a  spot.  There  are  no  circumstances  in  which 
a  man  must  have  his  garments  spotted  by  the  world. 
However  deep  the  filth  through  which  he  has  to  wade, 
if  God  sent  him  there,  and  if  ho  keeps  hold  of  God's 
hand,  his  purity  will  be  more  stainless  by  reason  of  the 
impurity  round  him.  There  were  saints  in  Caesars 
household,  and  depend  upon  it,  they  were  more  saintly 
saints  just  because  they  were  in  Caesar's  household. 
You  will  always  find  that  people  who  have  any  goodness 
in  them,  and  who  live  in  conditions  unusually  opposed 
to  goodness,  have  a  clearer  faith,  and  a  firmer  grasp  of 
their  Master,  and  a  higher  ideal  of  Christian  life,  just 
because  of  the  foulness  in  which  they  have  to  live.  It 
may  sound  a  paradox,  but  it  is  a  deep  truth  that  un- 
favourable circumstances  are  the  most  favourable  for 
the  development  of  Christian  character.  For  that 
development  comes,  not  by  what  we  draw  from  the 
things  around,  but  by  what  we  draw  from  the  soil  in 
which  we  are  rooted,  even  God  Himself,  in  whom  the 


70  THE  BOOK  OF  DANIEL        [ch.vl 

roots  find  both  anchorage  and  nutriment.  And  the 
more  we  are  thrown  back  upon  Him,  and  the  less  we 
find  food  for  our  best  selves  in  the  things  about  us,  the 
more  likely  is  our  religion  to  be  robust  and  thorough- 
going, and  conscious  ever  of  His  presence.  Resistance 
strengthens  muscles,  and  the  more  there  is  need  for 
that  in  our  Christian  lives,  the  manlier  and  the  stronger 
and  the  better  shall  we  probably  be.  Let  no  man  or 
woman  say,  '  If  only  circumstances  were  more  favour- 
able, oh,  what  a  saint  I  could  be;  but  how  can  I  be 
one,  with  all  these  unfavourable  conditions  ?  How  can 
a  man  keep  the  purity  of  his  Christian  life  and  the 
fervour  of  his  Christian  communion  amidst  the  tricks 
and  chicanery  and  small  things  of  Manchester  business  ? 
How  can  a  woman  find  time  to  hold  fellowship  with 
God,  when  all  day  long  she  is  distracted  in  her  nursery 
with  all  these  children  hanging  on  her  to  look  after  ? 
How -can  we,  in  our  actual  circumstances,  reach  the 
ideal  of  Christian  character?' 

Ah,  brother,  if  the  ideal's  being  realised  depends  on 
circumstances,  it  is  a  poor  affair.  It  depends  on  you, 
and  he  that  has  vitality  enough  within  him  to  keep 
hold  of  Jesus  Christ,  has  thereby  power  enough  withio 
him  to  turn  enemies  into  friends,  and  unfavourable 
circumstances  into  helps  instead  of  hindrances.  Your 
ship  can  sail  wonderfully  near  to  the  wind  if  you  trim 
the  sails  rightly,  and  keep  a  good,  strong  grip  on  the 
helm,  and  the  blasts  that  blow  all  but  in  your  face, 
may  be  made  to  carry  you  triumphantly  into  the 
haven  of  your  desire.  Remember  Daniel,  in  that  god- 
less court  reeking  with  lust  and  cruelty,  and  learn  that 
purity  and  holiness  and  communion  with  God  do  not 
depend  on  environment,  but  upon  the  inmost  will  of 
the  man. 


V.  5]       A  TRIBUTE  FROM  ENEMIES  71 

II.  Notice  the  keen  critics  that  all  good  men  have  to 
face. 

In  this  man's  case,  of  course,  their  eyesight  was 
mended  by  the  microscope  of  envy  and  malice.  That  is 
no  doubt  the  case  with  some  of  us  too.  But  whether 
that  be  so  or  no,  however  unobtrusive  and  quiet  a 
Christian  person's  life  may  be,  there  will  be  some  people 
standing  close  by  who,  if  not  actually  watching  for  his 
fall,  are  at  least  by  no  means  indisposed  to  make  the 
worst  of  a  slip,  and  to  rejoice  over  an  inconsistency. 

We  do  not  need  to  complain  of  that.  It  is  perfectly 
reasonable  and  perfectly  right.  There  will  always  be 
a  tendency  to  judge  men,  who  by  any  means  profess 
that  they  are  living  by  the  highest  law,  with  a  judgment 
that  has  very  little  charity  in  it.  And  it  is  perfectly 
right  that  it  should  be  so.  Christian  people  need  to  be 
trained  to  be  indifferent  to  men's  opinions,  but  they 
also  need  to  be  reminded  that  they  are  bound,  as  the 
Apostle  says,  to  '  provide  things  honest  in  the  sight  of 
all  men.'  It  is  a  reasonable  and  right  requirement  that 
they  should  '  have  a  good  report  of  them  that  are  with- 
out.' Be  content  to  be  tried  by  a  high  standard,  and  do 
not  wonder,  and  do  not  forget  that  there  are  keen  eyes 
watching  your  conduct,  in  your  home,  in  your  relations 
to  your  friends,  in  your  business,  in  your  public  life, 
which  would  weep  no  tears,  but  might  gleam  with 
malicious  satisfaction,  if  they  saw  inconsistencies  in 
you.  Remember  it,  and  shape  your  lives  so  that  they 
may  be  disappointed. 

If  a  minister  falls  into  any  kind  of  inconsistency  or 
sin,  if  a  professing  Christian  makes  a  bad  failure  in 
Manchester,  what  a  talk  there  is,  and  what  a  pointing 
of  fingers !  We  sometimes  think  it  is  hard ;  it  is  all 
right.    It  is  just  what  should  be  meted  out  to  us.    Let 


72  THE  BOOK  OF  DANIEL        [ch.  vi. 

us  remember  that  unslumbering  tribunal  which  sits  in 
judgment  upon  all  our  professions,  and  is  very  ready 
to  condemn,  and  very  slow  to  acquit. 

III.  Notice,  again,  the  unblemished  record. 

These  men  could  find  no  fault,  '  forasmuch  as  Daniel 
was  faithful.'  •  Neither  was  there  any  error ' — of  judg- 
ment, that  is, — '  or  fault ' — dereliction  of  duty,  that  is, — 
'found  in  him.'  They  were  very  poor  judges  of  his 
religion,  and  they  did  not  try  to  judge  that ;  but  they 
were  very  good  judges  of  his  conduct  as  prime  minister, 
and  they  did  judge  that.  The  world  is  a  very  poor 
critic  of  my  Christianity,  but  it  is  a  very  sufficient  one 
of  my  conduct.  It  may  not  know  much  about  the 
inward  emotions  of  the  Christian  life,  and  the  experi- 
ences in  which  the  Christian  heart  expatiates  and  loves 
to  dwell,  but  it  knows  what  short  lengths,  and  light 
weights,  and  bad  tempers,  and  dishonesty,  and  selfish- 
ness are.  And  it  is  by  our  conduct,  in  the  things  that 
they  and  we  do  together,  that  worldly  men  judge  what 
we  are  in  the  solitary  depths  where  we  dwell  in  com- 
munion with  God.  It  is  useless  for  Christians  to  be 
talking,  as  so  many  of  them  are  fond  of  doing,  about 
their  spiritual  experiences  and  their  religious  joy,  and 
all  the  other  sweet  and  sacred  things  which  belong  to 
the  silent  life  of  the  spirit  in  God,  unless,  side  by  side 
with  these,  there  is  the  doing  of  the  common  deeds 
which  the  world  is  actually  able  to  appraise  in  such  a 
fashion  as  to  extort,  even  from  them,  the  confession, 
*  We  find  no  occasion  against  this  man.' 

You  remember  the  pregnant,  quaint  old  saying,  *  If 
a  Christian  man  is  a  shoeblack,  he  ought  to  be  the 
best  shoeblack  in  the  parish.'  If  we  call  ourselves 
Christians,  we  are  bound,  by  the  very  name,  to  live  in 
such  a  fashion  as  that  men  shall  have  no  doubt  of  the 


V.5]       A  TRIBUTE  FROM  ENEMIES  73 

reality  of  our  profession  and  of  the  depth  of  our  fellow- 
ship with  Christ.  It  is  by  our  common  conduct  that 
they  judge  us.  And  the  'Christian  Endeavourer'  needs 
to  remember,  whether  he  or  she  be  old  or  young,  that 
the  best  sign  of  the  reality  of  the  endeavour  is  the  doing 
of  common  things  with  absolute  rightness,  because  they 
are  done  wholly  for  Christ's  sake. 

It  is  a  sharp  test,  and  I  wonder  how  many  of  us 
would  like  to  go  out  into  the  world,  and  say  to  all  the 
irreligious  people  who  know  us,  '  Now  come  and  tell  me 
what  the  faults  are  that  you  have  seen  in  me.'  There 
would  be  a  considerable  response  to  the  invitation,  and 
perhaps  some  of  us  would  learn  to  know  ourselves 
rather  better  than  we  have  been  able  to  do.  '  We  shall 
not  find  any  occasion  in  this  Daniel ' — I  wonder  if  they 
would  find  it  in  that  Daniel — '  except  we  find  it  con- 
cerning the  law  of  his  God.'  There  is  a  record  for  a 
man! 

IV.  Lastly,  note  obedient  disobedience. 

The  plot  goes  on  the  calculation  that,  whatever 
happens,  this  man  may  be  trusted  to  do  what  his  God 
tells  him,  no  matter  who  tells  him  not  to  do  it.  And 
so  on  that  calculation  the  law,  surely  as  mad  a  one  as 
any  Eastern  despot  ever  hatched,  is  passed  that,  for  a 
given  space  of  time,  nobody  within  the  dominions  of 
this  king,  Darius,  is  to  make  any  petition  or  request  of 
any  man  or  god,  save  of  the  king  only.  It  was  one  of 
the  long  series  of  laws  that  have  been  passed  in  order 
to  be  broken,  and  being  broken,  might  be  an  instrument 
to  destroy  the  men  that  broke  it.  It  was  passed  with 
no  intention  of  getting  obedience,  but  only  with  the 
intention  of  slaying  one  faithful  man,  and  the  plot 
worked  according  to  calculation. 

What  did  it  matter  to  Daniel  what  was  forbidden  or 


74  THE  BOOK  OF  DANIEL        [ch.  vi. 

commanded  ?  He  needed  to  pray  to  God,  and  nothing 
shall  hinder  him  from  doing  that.  And  so,  obediently 
disobedient,  he  brushes  the  preposterous  law  of  the 
poor,  shadowy  Darius  on  one  side,  in  order  that  he  may 
keep  the  law  of  his  God. 

Now  I  do  not  need  to  remind  you  how  obedience  to 
God  has  in  the  past  often  had  to  be  maintained  by 
disobedience  to  law.  I  need  not  speak  of  martyrs, 
nor  of  the  great  principle  laid  down  so  clearly  by 
the  apostle  Peter,  '  We  ought  to  obey  God  rather  than 
man.'  Nor  need  I  remind  you  that  if  a  man,  for  con- 
science sake,  refuses  to  render  active  obedience  to 
an  unrighteous  law,  and  unresistingly  accepts  the 
appointed  penalty,  he  is  not  properly  regarded  as  a 
law-breaker. 

If  earthly  authorities  command  what  is  clearly  con- 
trary to  God's  law,  a  Christian  is  absolved  from  obedi- 
ence, &,nd  cannot  be  loyal  unless  he  is  a  rebel.  That  is 
how  our  forefathers  read  constitutional  obligations. 
That  is  how  the  noble  men  on  the  other  side  of  the 
Atlantic,  fifty  years  ago,  read  their  constitutional  obliga- 
tions in  reference  to  that  devilish  institution  of  slavery. 
And  in  the  last  resort— God  forbid  that  we  should 
need  to  act  on  the  principle — Christian  men  are  set 
free  from  allegiance  when  the  authority  over  them 
commands  what  is  contrary  to  the  will  and  the  law 
of  God. 

But  all  that  does  not  touch  us.  But  I  will  tell  you 
what  does  touch  us.  Obedience  to  God  needs  always 
to  be  sustained — in  some  cases  more  markedly,  in  some 
cases  less  so — but  always  in  some  measure,  by  dis- 
obedience to  the  maxims  and  habits  of  most  men  round 
about  us.  If  they  say  '  Do  this,'  and  Jesus  Christ  says 
'  Don't,'  then  they  may  talk  as  much  as  they  like,  but 


V.5]         STOPPING  THE  LIONS' MOUTHS  75 

we  are  bound  to  turn  a  deaf  ear  to  their  exhortations 
and  threats. 

'  He  is  a  slave  that  dare  not  be 
In  the  right  with  two  or  three, 

as  that  peaceful  Quaker  poet  of  America  sings. 

And  for  us,  in  our  little  lives,  the  motto,  '  This  did  not 
I,  because  of  the  fear  of  the  Lord,'  is  absolutely  essential 
to  all  noble  Christian  conduct.  Unless  you  are  prepared 
to  be  in  the  minority,  and  now  and  then  to  be  called 
•  narrow,' '  fanatic,'  and  to  be  laughed  at  by  men  because 
you  will  not  do  what  they  do,  but  abstain  and  resist, 
then  there  is  little  chance  of  your  ever  making  much 
of  your  Christian  profession. 

These  people  calculated  upon  Daniel,  and  they  had  a 
right  to  calculate  upon  him.  Could  the  world  calculate 
upon  us,  that  we  would  rather  go  to  the  lions'  den  than 
conform  to  what  God  and  our  consciences  told  us  to  be 
a  sin  ?  If  not,  we  have  not  yet  learned  what  it  means 
to  be  a  disciple.  The  commandment  comes  to  us 
absolutely,  as  it  came  to  the  servants  in  the  first 
miracle,  'Whatsoever  He  saith  unto  you' — that,  and 
that  only — '  whatsoever  He  saith  unto  you,  do  it.* 


FAITH  STOPPING  THE  MOUTHS  OF  LIONS 

'  Then  the  king  commanded,  and  they  brought  Daniel,  and  cast  him  into  the  den 
of  lions.  Now  the  king  spake  and  said  unto  Daniel,  Thy  God  -whom  thou  servest 
continually,  He  -will  deliver  thee.  17.  And  a  stone  was  brought,  and  laid  upon  the 
mouth  of  the  den ;  and  the  king  sealed  it  with  his  own  signet,  and  with  the  signet 
of  his  lords  ;  that  the  purpose  might  not  be  changed  concerning  Daniel.  18.  Then 
the  king  went  to  his  palace,  and  passed  the  night  fasting :  neither  were  instru- 
ments of  musick  brought  before  him  :  and  his  sleep  went  from  him.  19.  Then  the 
king  arose  very  early  in  the  morning,  and  went  in  haste  unto  the  den  of  lions.  20. 
And  when  he  came  to  the  den,  he  cried  with  a  lamentable  voice  unto  Daniel :  and 
the  king  spake  and  said  to  Daniel,  O  Daniel,  servant  of  the  living  God,  is  Lhy  God, 
whom  thou  servest  continually,  able  to  deliver  thee  from  the  lions?  21.  Then  said 
Daniel  unto  the  king,  O  king,  live  for  ever.  22.  My  God  hath  sent  His  angel,  and 
hath  shut  the  lions'  mouths,  that  they  have  not  hurt  me:  forasmuch  as  before 
Him  innocency  was  found  in  me ;  and  also  before  thee,  O  king,  have  I  done  no 


76  THE  BOOK  OF  DANIEL        [oh.  vi. 

hurt.  23.  Then  was  the  king  exceeding  glad  for  him,  and  commanded  that  they 
should  take  Daniel  up  out  of  the  den.  So  Daniel  was  taken  up  out  of  the  den,  and 
no  manner  of  hurt  was  found  upon  him,  because  he  believed  in  his  God.  24.  And 
the  king  commanded,  and  they  brought  those  men  which  had  accused  Daniel,  and 
they  cast  them  into  the  den  of  lions,  them,  their  children,  and  their  wives;  and 
the  lions  had  the  mastery  of  them,  and  brake  all  their  bones  in  pieces  or  ever  they 
came  at  the  bottom  of  the  den.  25.  Then  king  Darius  wrote  unto  all  people, 
nations,  and  languages,  that  dwell  in  all  the  earth  ;  Peace  be  multiplied  unto  you. 
26.  I  make  a  decree,  That  in  every  dominion  of  my  kingdom  men  tremble  and  fear 
before  the  God  of  Daniel :  for  He  is  the  living  God,  and  stedfast  for  ever,  and  His 
kingdom  that  which  shall  not  be  destroyed,  and  His  dominion  shall  be  even  unto 
(he  end.  27.  He  delivereth  and  rescueth,  and  He  worketh  signs  and  wonders  in 
heaven  and  in  earth,  who  hath  delivered  Daniel  from  the  power  of  the  lions.  28. 
So  this  Daniel  prospered  in  the  reign  of  Darius,  and  in  the  reign  of  Cyrus  the 
Persian.'— Daniel  vi.  16-28. 

Daniel  was  verging  on  ninety  when  this  great  test  of 
his  faithfulness  was  presented  to  him.  He  had  been 
honoured  and  trusted  through  all  the  changes  in  the 
kingdom,  and,  when  the  Medo-Persian  conquest  came, 
the  new  monarch  naturally  found  in  him,  as  a  foreigner, 
a  more  reliable  minister  than  in  native  officials.  *  Envy 
doth  merit  as  its  shade  pursue,'  and  the  crafty  trick  by 
which  his  subordinates  tried  to  procure  his  fall,  was 
their  answer  to  Darius's  scheme  of  making  him  prime 
minister.  Our  passage  begins  in  the  middle  of  the 
story,  but  the  earlier  part  will  come  into  consideration 
in  the  course  of  our  remarks. 

I.  We  note,  first,  the  steadfast,  silent  confessor  and 
the  weak  king.  Darius  is  a  great  deal  more  con- 
spicuous in  the  narrative  than  Daniel.  The  victim  of 
injustice  is  silent.  He  does  not  seem  to  have  been 
called  on  to  deny  or  defend  the  indictment.  His  deed 
was  patent,  and  the  breach  of  the  law  flagrant.  He, 
too,  was  *like  a  sheep  before  the  shearers,'  dumb.  His 
silence  meant,  among  other  things,  a  quiet,  patient, 
fixed  resolve  to  bear  all,  and  not  to  deny  his  God, 
Weak  men  bluster.  Heroic  endurance  has  ^generally 
little  to  say.  \  Without  resistance,  or  a  word,  the  old 
man,  an  hour  ago  the  foremost  in  the  realm,  is  hauled 
ofip  and  flung  into  the  pit  or  den.    It  is  useless  and 


vs.  16-28]  STOPPING  THE  LIONS'  MOUTHS  77 


pcv 


needless  to  ask  its  form.  The  entrance  was  sealed 
with  two  seals,  one  the  king's,  one  the  conspirators', 
that  neither  party  might  steal  a  march  on  the  other. 
Fellows  in  iniquity  do  not  trust  each  other,  go,  downv 
in  the  dark  there,  with  the  glittering^  ej^eballsjof  the 
brutesTbund  him,  and  their  growls  in  his  ears,  the  old 
mansits  all  nightTohg,  wTth  peace  in  his  heart,  and  look- 
in  gniiprTiwEfuny,~JErou^h  the  hole  in  the  roof ,  to  his 
ProtecTor's  stars,  shining  theirjiilent  message  of  cheer. 

The  passage  dwells  on  the  pitiable  weakness  and 
consequent  unrest  of  the  king.  He  had  not  yielded 
Daniel  to  his  fate  without  a  struggle,  which  the 
previous  narrative  describes  in  strong  language.  '  Sore 
displeased,'  he  'set  his  heart'  on  delivering  him,  and 
'  laboured '  to  do  so.  The  curious  obstacle,  limiting 
even  his  power,  is  a  rare  specimen  of  conservatism  in 
its  purest  form.  So  wise  were  our  ancestors,  that 
nothing  of  theirs  shall  ever  be  touched.  Infallible 
legislators  can  make  immutable  laws ;  the  rest  of  us 
must  be  content  to  learn  by  blundering,  and  to  grow- 
by  changing.  The  man  who  says,  *  I  never  alter  my 
opinions,'  condemns  himself  as  either  too  foolish  or  too 
proud  to  learn. 

But  probably,  if  the  question  had  been  about  a  law'V^ 
that  was  inconvenient  to  Darius  himself,  or  to  these 
advocates  of  the  constitution  as  it  has  always  been, 
some  way  of  getting  round  it  would  have  been  found 
out.  If  the  king  had  been  bold  enough  to  assert  him- 
self, he  could  have  walked  through  the  cobweb.  But 
this  is  one  of  the  miseries  of  yielding  to  evil  counsels, 
that  one  step  taken  calls  for  another.  *  In  for  a  penny,  |  \ 
in  for  a  pound.'  Therefore  let  us  all  take  heed  of 
small  compliances,  and  be  sure  that  we  can  never  say 
about  any  doubtful  course,  '  Thus  far  will  I  go,  and  no 


.aA' 


UL. 


1/ 


/ 


78  THE  BOOK  OF  DANIEL        [ch.  vi. 

farther.*  Darius jwas  his  servants'  servant  vs^hen  once 
he  had  put  his  name  to  the  arrogant  decree.  He  did 
not  know  the  incidence  of  his  act,  and  we  do  not  know 
that  of  ours;  therefore  let  us  take  heed  of  the  quality 
of  actions  and  motives,  since  we  are  wholly  incapable 
of  estimating  the  sweep  of  their  consequences.  * 

Darius's  conduct  to  Daniel  was  like  Herod's  to  John 
the^aptist  and  Pilate's  to  Jesus.  In  all  the  cases  the 
judges  were  convinced  of  the  victim's  innocence,  and 
would  have  saved  him ;  but  fear  of  others  biassed 
justice,  and  from  selfish  motives,  they  let  fierce  hatred 
have  its  way.  Such  judges  are  murderers.  From  all 
come  the  old  lessons,  never  too  threadbare  to  be  dinned 
^.-^  into  the  ears,  especially  of  the  young,  that  to  be  weak 

is,  in  a  world  so  full  of  temptation,  the  saraie  as  to  be 
wicked,  and  that  he  who  has  a  sidelong  eye  to  his 
supposed  interest,  will  never  see  the  path  of  duty 
plainly; 

What  a  feeble  excuse  to  his  own  conscience  was 
Darius's  parting  word  to  DameT!  *  Thy  (rod,  whom 
thou  servest  continually,  He  will  deliver  thee!'  And 
was  flinging  him  to  the  lions  the  right  way  to  treat  a 
man  who  served  God  continually?  Or,  what  right  had 
Darius  to  expect  that  any  god  vrould  interfere  to  stop 
the  consequences  of  his  act,  which  he  thus  himself  con- 
demned? We  are  often  tempted  to  think,  as  he  did, 
that  a  divine  intervention  will  come  in  between  our 
evil  deeds  and  their  natural  results.  We  should  be 
wiser  if  we  did  not  do  the  things  that,  by  our  own  con- 
fession, need  God  to  avert  their  issues. 

But  that  weak  parting  word  witnessed  to  the  im- 
pression made  by  the  life-long  consistency  of  Daniel. 
He  must  be  a  good  man  who  gets  such  a  testimony 
from  those  who  are  harming  him.    The  busy  minister 


vs.  16-28]  STOPPING  THE  LIONS'  MOUTHS  79 

of  state  had  done  his  political  work  so  as  to  extort 
that  tribute  from  one  who  had  no  sympathy  with  his 
religion.  Do  we  do  ours  in  that  fashion  ?  How  many 
of  our  statesmen  '  serve  God  continually '  and  obviously 
in  their  public  life  ? 

What  a  contrast  between  the  night  passed  in  the 
lions'  den  and  the  palace !  '  Stone  walls  do  not  a 
prison  make,  nor  iron  bars  a  cage,'  and  soft  beds  and 
luxurious  delights  of  sense  bring  no  ease  to  troubled 
consciences.  Daniel  is  more  at  rest,  though  his  'soul  —NTia, 
is  among  lions,'  than  Darius  in  his  palace.  Peter  sleeps 
soundly,  though  the  coming  morning  is  to  be  his  last. 
Better  to  be  the  victim  than  the  doer  of  injustice ! 

The  verdict  of  nightly  thoughts  on  daily  acts  is 
usually  true,  and  if  our  deeds  do  not  bear  thinking  of 
'  on  our  beds,'  the  sooner  we  cancel  them  by  penitence 
and  reversed  conduct,  the  better.  But  weak  men  are 
often  prone  to  swift  and  shallow  j'egrets,  which  do  not 
influence  their  future  any  more  than  a  stone  thrown 
into  the  sea  makes  a  permanent  gap.  Why  should 
Darius  have  waited  for  morning,  if  his  penitence  had 
moved  him  to  a  firm  resolution  to  undo  the  evil  done  ? 
He  had  better  have  sprung  from  his  bed,  and  gone 
with  his  guards  to  open  the  den  in  the  dark.  Feeble 
lamentations  are  out  of  place  when  it  is  still  time 
to  act. 

The  hurried  rush  to  the  den  in  the  morning  twilight, 
and  the  '  lamentable  voice,'  so  unlike  royal  impassive- 
ness,  indicate  the  agitation  of  an  impulsive  nature, 
accustomed  to  let  the  feeling  of  the  moment  sway  it 
unchecked.  Absolute  power  tends  to  make  that  type 
of  man.  The  question  thrown  into  the  den  seems  to 
imply  that  its  interior  was  not  seen.  If  so,  the  half- 
belief  in  Daniel's  survival  is  remarkable.    It  indicates, 


80  THE  BOOK  OF  DANIEL       [ch.vi. 

as  before,  the  impression  of  steadfast  devoutness  made 
by  the  old  man's  life,  and  also  a  belief  that  his  God 
was  possibly  a  true  and  potent  divinity. 

Such  a  belief  was  quite  natural,  but  it  does  not  mean 
that  Darius  was  prepared  to  accept  Daniel's  God  as  his 
god.  His  religion  was  probably  elastic  and  hospitable 
enough  to  admit  that  other  nations  might  have  other 
gods.  But  his  thoughts  about  this  '  living  God '  are  a 
strange  medley.  He  is  not  sure  whether  He  is  stronger 
than  the  royal  lions,  and  he  does  not  seem  to  feel  that 
if  a  god  delivers,  his  own  act  in  surrendering  a  favoured 
servant  of  such  a  god  looks  very  black.  A  half-belief 
blinds  men  to  the  appositionJbetween  their  ways  and 
Qod/s,  and  to  the  certain  issue  of  their  going  in  one 
directionand  God  in  another.  If  Daniel  be  delivered, 
what  will  become  of  Darius  ?  But,  like  most  men,  he 
is  illogical,  and  that  question  does  not  seem  to  have 
occurred  to  him.  Surely  this  man  may  sit  for  a 
portrait  of  a  weak,  passionate  nature,  in  the  feeble- 
ness of  his  resistance  to  evil,  the  half  hopes  that 
wrong  would  be  kept  from  turning  out  so  badly  as  it 
promised,  the  childish  moanings  over  wickedness  that 
might  still  have  been  mended,  and  the  incapacity  to 
take  in  the  grave,  personal  consequences  of  his  crime. 
^  it^  We  next  note  the  great  deliverancei^yThe  king 
does  not  see  Daniel,  and  waits  in  sickening  doubt 
whether  any  sound  but  the  brutes'  snarl  at  the  disturber 
of  their  feast  will  be  heard.  There  must  have  been  a 
sigh  of  relief  when  the  calm  accents  were  audible  from 
the  unseen  depth.  And  what  dignity,  respect,  failh, 
and  innocence  are  in  them !  Even  in  such  circum- 
stances the  usual  form  of  reverential  salutation  to  the 
king  is  remembered.  That  night's  worlc_niight  have 
made  a  sullen  rebel  of  Daniel,  and  small  blame  to  him 


V8.16-28]  STOPPING  THE  LIONS'  MOUTHS  81 


if  he  had-Jiad  no  very  amiable  feelings  to  Darius;  but 
he  hadLieaTned  faithfulness  in  a  good  school,  and  no 
trace  of  returning  evil  for  evil  was  in  his  words  or 
tones. 

The  formal  greeting  was  much  more  than  a  form, 
when  it  came  up  from  among  the  lions.  It  heaped 
coals  of  fire  on  the  king's  head,  let  us  hope,  and 
taught  him,  if  he  needed  the  lesson,  that  Daniel's  dis- 
obedience had  not  been  disloyalty.  The  more  religion 
compels  us  to  disregard  the  authority  and  practices  of 
others,  the  more  scrupulously  attentive  should  we  be 
to  demonstrate  that  we  cherish  all  due  regard  to  them, 
and  wish  them  well.  How  simply,  and  as  if  he^  sj3,w 
nothing  in  it  to  wonder  at,  he  tells  the  f act^of ^is 
deliverance !  *^My  God  has  sent  His  angel,  and  hath 
shut  the  lions'  mouths.'  He  had  not~tmeirabi^rto  say,  / 
as  the  king  did  before  the  den  was  opened,  TTiy  Gfod  /  -V 
will  deliver  thee^[but  he  had  gone  down  intoTitrknow-/  ^ 

ing  that  He  was  able,  and  leaving  himself  in   God's/   .^  vj.^o-a 
care.    ^  it  was  no  surprise  to  him  that  he  was  safe.x    Q 
Thankfulness,  but  not  astonishment,  filled  his  heart.y 
So  faith  takes  God's  gifts,  however  great  and^T)eybhd\ 
natural  possibility  they  may  be ;  for  the  greatest  of 
them  are  less  than  the  Love  which  faith  knows  to 
move  all  things,  and  whatsoever  faith  receives  is  just  7 
like  Him. 

Daniel  did  not  say,  as  Darius  did,  that  he  served  God 
continually,  but  he  did  declare  his  own  innocency  in 
God's  sight  and  unimpeachable  fidelity  to  the  king. 
His  reference  is  probably  mainly  to  his  ofiicial  con- 
duct ;  but  the  characteristic  tone  of  the  Old  Testament 
saint  is  audible,  which  ventured  on  professions  of  up- 
rightness, accordant  with  an  earlier  stage  of  revelation 
and   religious    consciousness,  but   scarcely  congruous 


i 


82  THE  BOOK  OF  DANIEL        [ch.vi. 

■with  the  deeper  and  more  inward  sense  of  sin  produced 

by  the  full  revelation  in  Christ.     But  if  the  tone  of  the 

latter  part  of  verse  22  is  somewhat  strange  to  us,  the 

historian's  summary  in  verse  23  gives  the  eternal  truth 

.  of  the  matter :  '  No  manner  of  hurt  was  found  upon 

I  him,  because  he  had  trusted  in  his  God.'    That  is  the 

^1  basis  of  the  reference  in  Hebrews  xi.  33 :   '  Through 

1  faith  .  .  .  stopped  the  mouths  of  lions.' 

,  Simple  trust  in  God  brings  His  angel  to  our  help,  and 

^he  deliverance,  which  is  ultimately  to  be  ascribed  to 

His  hand  muzzling  the  gaping  beasts  of  prey,  may  also 

be  ascribed  to  the  faith  which  sets  His  hand  in  motion. 

The  true  cause  is  God,  but  the  indispensable  condition 

without  which  God  will  not  act,  and  with  which  He 

cannot  but  act,  is  our  trust.    Therefore  all  the  great 

things  which  it  is  said  to  do  are  due,  not  to  anything 

\  in  it,  but  wholly  to  that  of  which  it  lays  hold.     A  foot 

^r  two  of  lead  pipe  is  worth  little,  but  if  it  is  the 

channel  through  which  water  flows  into  a  city,  it  is 

priceless. 

Faith  may  or  may  not  bring  external  deliverances, 
such  as  it  brought  to  Daniel ;  but  the  good  cheer  which 
this  story  brings  us  does  not  depend  on  these.  When 
Paul  lay  in  Rome,  shortly  before  his  martyrdom,  the 
experience  of  Daniel  was  in  his  mind,  as  he  thankfully 
wrote  to  Timothy,  *  I  was  delivered  out  of  the  mouth  of 
the  lion.'  He  adds  a  hope  which  contrasts  strangely,  at 
•^  ^  first  sight,  with  the  clear  expectation  of  a  speedy  and 
violent  death,  expressed  a  moment  or  two  before  ('  I 
am  already  being  offered,  and  the  time  of  my  de- 
parture is  come ')  when  he  says,  'The  Lord  will  deliver 
me  from  every  evil  work';|but  he  had  learned  that  it 
was  possible  to  pass  through  the  evil  and  yet  to  be 
delivered  from  it,  and  that  a  man  might  be  thrown 


^ 


\ 


vs.16-28]  STOPriNG  THE  LIONS' MOUTHS  83 


to  the  lions  and  devoured  by  them,  and  yet  be  truly 
shielded  from  all  harm  from  them.  So  he  adds,  'And  will 
save  me  unto  His  heavenly  kingdom,'  thereby  teaching 
us  that  the  true  deliverance  is  that  which  carries  u^i  v^ 
into,  or  something  nearer  towards,  the  eternal  home.//^ 
Thus  understood,  the  miracle  of  Daniel's  deliverance  is 
continually  repeated  to  all  who  partake  of  Daniel's 
faith,  'Thou  hast  made  the  Most  High  thy  habitation' 
.  .  .  thou  shalt  tread  upon  the  lion  and  adder.' 

The  savage  vengeance  on  the  conspirators  and  the 
proclamation  of  Darius  must  be  left  untouched.    The 
one  is  a  ghastly  example  of  retributive  judgment,  in 
which,  as  sometimes  is  the  case  even  now,  men  fall 
into  the  pit  they  have  digged  for  others,  and  it  shows 
the  barbarous   cruelty  of  that  gorgeous  civilisation. 
The  other  is  an  example  of  how  far  a  man  may  go  in 
perceiving  and  acknowledging  the  truth  without  it 
influencing  his  heart.    The  decree  enforces  recognition 
of  Daniel's  God,  in  language  which  even  prophets  do 
not  surpass;  but  it  is  all  lip-reverence,  as  evanescent 
as  superficial.     It  takes  more  than  a  fright^aused  byjt\ 
miracle  to  make^jnan  a  true  servant  of  the  living' 
God,  . 

The    final    verse    of    the    passage    implies    Daniel's   ] 
restoration    to    rank,  and    gives    a    beautiful,  simple    1 
picture  of  the  old  man's  closing  days,  which  had  begun  / 
so  long  before,  in  such  a  different  world  as  Nebuchad-  1,,-k 
nezzar's  reign,  and  closed  in  Cyrus's,  enriched  with  all 
that  should    accompany  old   age — honour,  obedience,    I 
troops  of  friends.     '  When  a  man's  ways  please  the  / 
Lord,  He  maketh  even  his  enemies  to  be  at  peace  with 
him.' 


A  NEW  YEAR'S  MESSAGE 

'  But  go  thou  thy  way  till  the  end  be :  for  thou  ehalt  rest,  and  stand  In  thy  lot  at 
the  end  of  the  days.'— Daniel  xii.  13. 

Daniel  had  been  receiving  partial  insight  into  the 
future  by  the  visions  recorded  in  previous  chapters. 
He  sought  for  clearer  knowledge,  and  was  told  that  the 
book  of  the  future  was  sealed  and  closed,  so  that  no 
further  enlightenment  was  possible  for  him.  But  duty- 
was  clear,  whatever  might  be  dark;  and  there  were 
some  things  in  the  future  certain,  whatever  might  be 
problematic.  So  he  is  bidden  back  to  the  common  paths 
of  life,  and  is  enjoined  to  pursue  his  patient  course  with 
an  eye  on  the  end  to  which  it  conducts,  and  to  leave  the 
unknown  future  to  unfold  itself  as  it  may. 

I  do  not  need,  I  suppose,  to  point  the  application. 
Anticipations  of  what  may  be  before  us  have,  no  doubt, 
been  more  or  less  in  the  minds  of  all  of  us  in  the 
last  few  days.  The  cast  of  them  will  have  been  very 
different,  according  to  age  and  present  circumstances. 
But  bright  or  dark,  hopes  or  dreads,  they  reveal 
nothing.  Sometimes  we  think  we  see  a  little  way 
ahead,  and  then  swirling  mists  hide  all. 

So  I  think  that  the  words  of  my  text  may  help  us 
not  only  to  apprehend  the  true  task  of  the  moment, 
but  to  discriminate  between  the  things  in  the  unknown 
future  that  are  hidden  and  those  that  stand  clear. 
There  are  three  points,  then,  in  this  message — the 
journey,  the  pilgrim's  resting-place,  and  the  final  home. 
•  Go  thou  thy  way  till  the  end  be :  for  thou  shalt  rest, 
and  stand  in  thy  lot  at  the  end  of  the  days.'  Let  us, 
then,  look  at  these  three  points  briefly. 

I.  The  journey. 

84 


V.  13]        A  NEW  YEAR'S  MESSAGE  85 

That  is  a  threadbare  metaphor  for  life.  But  thread- 
bare as  it  is,  its  significance  is  inexhaustible.  But  be- 
fore I  deal  with  it,  note  that  very  significant '  but '  with 
which  my  text  begins.  The  Prophet  has  been  asking 
for  a  little  more  light  to  shine  on  the  dark  unknown 
that  stretches  before  him.  And  his  request  is  negatived 
— '  But  go  thou  thy  way.'  In  the  connection  that  means, 
'  Do  not  waste  your  time  in  dreaming  about,  or  peering 
into,  what  you  can  never  see,  but  fill  the  present  with 
strenuous  service.'  *  Go  thou  thy  way.'  Never  mind 
the  far-off  issues ;  the  step  before  you  is  clear,  and  that 
is  all  that  concerns  you.  Plod  along  the  path,  and  leave 
to-morrow  to  take  care  of  itself.  There  is  a  piece  of 
plain  practical  wisdom,  none  the  less  necessary  for  us 
to  lay  to  heart  because  it  is  so  obvious  and  common- 
place. 

And  then,  if  we  turn  to  the  emblem  with  which  the 
continuity  of  daily  life  and  daily  work  is  set  forth  here, 
as  the  path  along  which  we  travel,  how  much  wells  up 
in  the  shape  of  suggestion,  familiar,  it  may  be,  but  very 
needful  and  wholesome  for  us  all  to  lay  to  heart ! 

The  figure  implies  perpetual  change.  The  landscape 
glides  past  us,  and  we  travel  on  through  it.  How  im- 
possible it  would  be  for  us  older  people  to  go  back  to 
the  feelings,  to  the  beliefs,  to  the  tone  and  the  temper 
with  which  we  used  to  look  at  life  thirty  or  forty  years 
ago !  Strangely  and  solemmly,  like  the  silent  motion  of 
some  gliding  scene  in  a  theatre,  bit  by  bit,  inch  by  inch, 
change  comes  over  all  surroundings,  and,  saddest  of  all, 
in  some  aspects,  over  ourselves. 

•  We  all  are  changed,  by  still  degrees, 
All  but  the  basis  of  the  soul.' 

And  it  is  foolish  for  us  ever  to  forget  that  we  live  in  a 
state  of  things  in  which  constant  alteration  is  the  law, 


86  THE  BOOK  OF  DANIEL       [ch.xii. 

as  surely  as,  when  the  train  whizzes  through  the 
country,  the  same  landscape  never  meets  the  eye 
twice,  as  the  traveller  looks  through  the  windows. 
Let  us,  then,  accept  the  fact  that  nothing  abides  with 
us,  and  so  not  be  bewildered  nor  swept  away  from  our 
moorings,  nor  led  to  vain  regrets  and  paralysing  retro- 
spects when  the  changes  that  must  come  do  come, 
sometimes  slowly  and  imperceptibly,  sometimes  with 
stunning  suddenness,  like  a  bolt  out  of  the  blue.  If 
life  is  truly  represented  under  the  figure  of  a  journey, 
nothing  is  more  certain  than  that  we  sleep  in  a  fresh 
hospice  every  night,  and  leave  behind  us  every  day 
scenes  that  we  shall  never  traverse  again.  What  mad- 
ness, then,  to  be  putting  out  eager  and  desperate  hands 
to  clutch  what  must  be  left,  and  so  to  contradict  the 
very  law  under  which  we  live ! 

Then  another  of  the  well-worn  commonplaces  which 
are  so  believed  by  us  all  that  we  never  think  about 
them,  and  therefore  need  to  be  urged,  as  I  am  trying, 
poorly  enough,  to  do  now — another  of  the  common- 
places that  spring  from  this  image  is  that  life  is  con- 
tinuous. Geologists  used  to  be  divided  into  two  schools, 
one  of  whom  explained  everything  by  invoking  great 
convulsions,  the  other  by  appealing  to  the  uniform 
action  of  laws.  There  are  no  convulsions  in  life.  To- 
morrow is  the  child  of  to-day,  and  yesterday  was  the 
father  of  this  day.  What  we  are,  springs  from  what 
we  have  been,  and  settles  what  we  shall  be.  The  road 
leads  somewhither,  and  we  follow  it  step  by  step.  As 
the  old  nursery  rhyme  has  it — 

*  One  foot  up  and  one  foot  down, 
That's  the  way  to  London  town.' 

We  make  our  characters  by  the  continual  repetition  of 
small  actions.    Let  no  man  think  of  his  Uf  e  as  if  it  were  a 


V.  13]        A  NEW  YEAR'S  MESSAGE  87 

heap  of  unconnected  points.  It  is  a  chain  of  links  that 
are  forged  together  inseparably.  Let  no  man  say,  •  I 
do  this  thing,  and  there  shall  be  no  evil  consequences 
impressed  upon  my  life  as  results  of  it.'  It  cannot 
bo.  *  To-morrow  shall  he  as  this  day,  and  much  more 
abundant.'  We  shall  to-morrow  be  more  of  everything 
that  we  are  to-day,  unless  by  some  strong  effort  of 
repentance  and  change  we  break  the  fatal  continuity, 
and  make  a  new  beginning  by  God's  grace.  But  let 
us  lay  to  heart  this,  as  a  very  solemn  truth  which  lifts 
up  into  mystical  and  unspeakable  importance  the  things 
that  men  idly  call  trifles,  that  life  is  one  continuous 
whole,  a  march  towards  a  definite  end. 

And  therefore  we  ought  to  see  to  it  that  the  direction 
in  which  our  life  runs  is  one  that  conscience  and  God 
can  approve.  And,  since  the  rapidity  with  which  a 
body  falls  increases  as  it  falls,  the  more  needful  that 
we  give  the  right  direction  and  impulses  to  the  life. 
It  will  be  a  dreadful  thing  if  our  downward  course 
acquires  strength  as  it  travels,  and  being  slow  at  first, 
gains  in  celerity,  and  accrues  to  itself  mass  and  weight, 
like  an  avalanche  started  from  an  Alpine  summit,  which 
is  but  one  or  two  bits  of  snow  and  ice  at  first,  and  falls 
at  last  into  the  ravine,  tons  of  white  destruction.  The 
lives  of  many  of  us  are  like  it. 

Further,  the  metaphor  suggests  that  no  life  takes  its 
fitting  course  unless  there  is  continuous  effort.  There 
will  be  crises  when  we  have  to  run  with  panting  breath 
and  strained  muscles.  There  will  be  long  stretches 
of  level  commonplace  where  speed  is  not  needed,  but 
*  pegging  away '  is,  and  the  one  duty  is  persistent  con- 
tinuousness  in  a  course.  But  whether  the  task  of  the 
moment  is  to  '  run  and  not  be  weary,'  or  to  '  walk  and 
not  faint,'  crises  and  commonplace  stretches  of  land 


88  THE  BOOK  OF  DANIEL       [ch.xii. 

alike  require  continuous  effort,  if  we  are  to  '  run  with 
patience  the  race  that  is  set  before  us.' 

Mark  the  emphasis  of  my  text,  '  Go  thy  way  till  the 
end.'  You,  my  contemporaries,  you  older  men !  do  not 
fancy  that  in  the  deepest  aspect  any  life  has  ever  a 
period  in  it  in  which  a  man  may  '  take  it  easy.'  You 
may  do  that  in  regard  to  outward  things,  and  it  is  the 
hope  and  the  reward  of  faithfulness  in  youth  and 
middle  age  that,  when  the  grey  hairs  come  to  be  upon 
us,  we  may  slack  off  a  little  in  regard  to  outward 
activity.  But  in  regard  to  all  the  deepest  things  of 
life,  no  man  may  ever  lessen  his  diligence  until  he  has 
attained  the  goal. 

Some  of  you  will  remember  how,  in  a  stormy  October 
night,  many  years  ago,  the  Royal  Charter  went  down 
when  three  hours  from  Liverpool,  and  the  passengershad 
met  in  the  saloon  and  voted  a  testimonial  to  the  captain 
because  he  had  brought  them  across  the  ocean  in  safety. 
Until  the  anchor  is  down  and  we  are  inside  the  harbour, 
we  may  be  shipwrecked,  if  we  are  careless  in  our  navi- 
gation. *  Go  thou  thy  way  until  the  end.'  And  remem- 
ber, you  older  people,  that  until  that  end  is  reached 
you  have  to  use  all  your  power,  and  to  labour  as 
earnestly,  and  guard  yourself  as  carefully,  as  at  any 
period  before. 

And  not  only  •  till  the  end,'  but  *  go  thou  thy  way  to 
the  end.'  That  is  to  say,  let  the  thought  that  the  road 
has  a  termination  be  ever  present  with  us  all.  Now, 
there  is  a  great  deal  of  the  so-called  devout  contempla- 
tion of  death  which  is  anything  but  wholesome.  People 
were  never  meant  to  be  always  looking  forward  to 
that  close.  Men  may  think  of  '  the  end'  in  a  hundred 
different  connections.  One  man  may  say,  '  Let  us  eat 
and  drink,  for  to-morrow  we  die.'    Another  man  may 


V.13]        A  NEW  YEAR'S  MESSAGE  89 

say, '  I  have  only  a  little  while  to  master  this  science, 
to  make  a  name  for  myself,  to  win  wealth.  Let  me 
bend  all  my  efforts  in  a  fierce  determination — made  the 
fiercer  because  of  the  thought  of  the  brevity  of  life — to 
win  the  end.'  The  mere  contemplation  of  the  shortness 
of  our  days  may  be  an  ally  of  immorality,  of  selfishness, 
of  meanness,  of  earthly  ambitions,  or  it  may  lay  a  cool- 
ing hand  on  fevered  brows,  and  lessen  the  pulsations  of 
hearts  that  throb  for  earth. 

But  whilst  it  is  not  wholesome  to  be  always  thinking 
of  death,  it  is  more  unwholesome  still  never  to  let  the 
contemplation  of  that  end  come  into  our  calculations 
of  the  future,  and  to  shape  our  lives  in  an  obstinate 
blindness  to  what  is  the  one  certain  fact  which  rises  up 
through  the  whirling  mists  of  the  unknown  future,  like 
some  black  cliff  from  the  clouds  that  wreath  around  it. 
Is  it  not  strange  that  the  surest  thing  is  the  thing  that 
we  forget  most  of  all  ?  It  sometimes  seems  to  me  as  if 
the  sky  rained  down  opiates  upon  people,  as  if  all  man- 
kind were  in  a  conspiracy  of  lunacy,  because  they,  with 
one  accord,  ignore  the  most  prominent  and  forget  the 
only  certain  fact  about  their  future ;  and  in  all  their 
calculations  do  not '  so  number  their  days'  as  to  'apply' 
their  '  hearts  unto  wisdom.'  '  Go  thou  thy  way  until 
the  end,'  and  let  thy  way  be  marked  out  with  a  constant 
eye  towards  the  end. 

II.  Note,  again,  the  resting-place. 

'  Go  thou  thy  way,  for  thou  shalt  rest.'  Now,  I  sup- 
pose, to  most  careful  readers  that  clearly  is  intended  as 
a  gracious,  and  what  they  call  a  euphemistic  way  of 
speaking  about  death.  'Thou  shalt  rest';  well,  that 
is  a  thought  that  takes  away  a  great  deal  of  the  grim- 
ness  and  the  terror  with  which  men  generally  invest 
the  close.    It  is  a  thought,  of  course,  the  force  of  which 


90  THE  BOOK  OF  DANIEL       [ch.  xn. 

is  very  different  in  different  stages  and  conditions  of 
life.  To  you  young  people,  eager,  perhaps  ambitious, 
full  of  the  consciousness  of  inward  power,  happy,  and, 
in  all  human  probability,  with  the  greater  portion  of 
your  lives  before  you  in  which  to  do  what  you  desire, 
the  thought  of  '  rest '  comes  with  a  very  faint  appeal. 
And  yet  I  do  not  suppose  that  there  is  any  one  of  us 
who  has  not  some  burden  that  is  hard  to  carry,  or  who 
has  not  learned  what  weariness  means. 

But  to  us  older  people,  who  have  tasted  disappoint- 
ments, who  have  known  the  pressure  of  grinding  toil 
for  a  great  many  years,  whose  hearts  have  been  gnawed 
by  harassments  and  anxieties  of  different  kinds,  whose 
lives  are  apparently  drawing  nearer  their  end  than  the 
present  moment  is  to  their  beginning,  the  thought, 
'  Thou  shalt  rest,'  comes  with  a  very  different  appeal 
from  that  which  it  makes  to  these  others. 

.'  There  remaineth  a  rest  for  the  people  of  God, 
And  I  have  had  trouble  enough  for  one,' 

says  our  great  modern  poet ;  and  therein  he  echoes  the 
deepest  thoughts  of  most  of  this  congregation.  That 
rest  is  the  cessation  of  toil,  but  the  continuance  of 
activity — the  cessation  of  toil,  and  anxiety,  and  harass- 
ment, and  care,  and  so  the  darkness  is  made  beautiful 
when  we  think  that  God  draws  the  curtain,  as  a  careful 
mother  does  in  her  child's  chamber,  that  the  light  may 
not  disturb  the  slumberer. 

But,  dear  friends,  that  final  cessation  of  earthly  work 
has  a  double  character.  '  Thou  shalt  rest '  was  said  to 
this  man  of  God.  But  what  of  people  whom  death 
takes  away  from  the  only  sort  of  work  that  they  are 
fit  to  do  ?  It  will  be  no  rest  to  long  for  the  occupations 
which  you  never  can  have  any  more.  And  if  you  have 
been  living  for  this  wretched  present,  to  be  condemned 


V.13]        A  NEW  YEAR'S  MESSAGE  91 

to  have  nothing  to  do  any  more  in  it  and  with  it  will  be 
torture,  and  not  repose.  Ask  yourselves  how  you  would 
like  to  be  taken  out  of  your  shop,  or  your  mill,  or  your 
study,  or  your  laboratory,  or  your  counting-house,  and 
never  be  allowed  to  go  into  it  again.  Some  of  you  know 
how  wearisome  a  holiday  is  when  you  cannot  get  to 
your  daily  work.  You  will  get  a  very  long  holiday 
after  you  are  dead.  And  if  the  hungering  after  the 
withdrawn  occupation  persists,  there  will  be  very  little 
pleasure  in  rest.  There  is  only  one  way  by  which  we 
can  make  that  inevitable  end  a  blessing,  and  turn  death 
into  the  opening  of  the  gate  of  our  resting-place ;  and 
that  is  by  setting  our  heart's  desires  and  our  spirit's 
trust  on  Jesus  Christ,  who  is  the  '  Lord  both  of  the 
dead  and  of  the  living.'  If  we  do  that,  even  that  last 
enemy  will  come  to  us  as  Christ's  representative,  with 
Christ's  own  word  upon  his  lip,  '  Come  unto  Me,  ye  that 
are  weary  and  are  heavy  laden,  and  I ' — because  He  has 
given  Me  the  power — '/  will  give  you  rest.' 
'  Sleep,  full  of  rest,  f rora  head  to  foot ; 
Lie  still,  dry  dust,  secure  of  change.' 

III.  That  leads  me  to  the  last  thought,  the  home. 

*  Thou  shalt  stand  in  thy  lot  at  the  end  of  the  days.' 
'Stand' — that  is  Daniel's  way  of  preaching,  what  he 
has  been  preaching  in  several  other  parts  of  his  book, 
the  doctrine  of  the  resurrection.  '  Thou  shalt  stand  in 
thy  lot.'  That  is  a  reference  to  the  ancient  partition  of 
the  land  of  Canaan  amongst  the  tribes,  where  each 
man  got  his  own  portion,  and  sat  under  his  own  vine 
and  fig-tree.  And  so  there  emerge  from  these  sym- 
bolical words  thoughts  upon  which,  at  this  stage 
of  my  sermon,  I  can  barely  touch.  First  comes  the 
thought  that,  however  sweet  and  blessed  that  repose- 
ful state  may  be,  humanity  has  not  attained  its  perfec- 


92  THE  BOOK  OF  DANIEL       [ch.xii. 

tion  until  once  again  the  perfected  spirit  is  mated  with, 
and  enclosed  within,  its  congenial  servant,  a  perfect 
body.  •  Corporeity  is  the  end  of  man.'  Body,  soul,  and 
spirit  partake  of  the  redemption  of  God. 

But  then,  apart  from  that,  on  which  I  must  not  dwell, 
my  text  suggests  one  or  two  thoughts.  God  is  the  true 
inheritance.  Each  man  has  his  own  portion  of  the 
common  possession,  or,  to  put  it  into  plainer  words, 
in  that  perfect  land  each  individual  has  precisely  so 
much  of  God  as  he  is  capable  of  possessing.  '  Thou 
shalt  stand  in  thy  lot,'  and  what  determines  the  lot  is 
how  we  wend  our  way  till  that  other  end,  the  end  of 
life.  '  The  end  of  the  days '  is  a  period  far  beyond  the 
end  of  the  life  of  Daniel.  And  as  the  course  that 
terminated  in  repose  has  been,  so  the  possession  of 
'  the  portion  of  the  inheritance  of  the  saints  in  light ' 
shall  be,  for  which  that  course  has  made  men  meet. 
Destiny  is  character  worked  out.  A  man  will  be  where 
he  is  fit  for,  and  have  what  he  is  fit  for.  Time  is  the 
lackey  of  eternity.  His  life  here  settles  how  much  of 
God  a  man  shall  be  able  to  hold,  when  he  stands  in  his 
lot  at  the  '  end  of  the  days,'  and  his  allotted  portion, 
as  it  stretches  around  him,  will  be  but  the  issue  and 
the  outcome  of  his  life  here  on  earth. 

Therefore,  dear  brethren,  tremendous  importance 
attaches  to  each  fugitive  moment.  Therefore  each  act 
that  we  do  is  weighted  with  eternal  consequences.  If 
we  will  put  our  trust  in  Him,  *  in  whom  also  we  obtain 
the  inheritance,'  and  will  travel  on  life's  common  way 
in  cheerful  godliness,  we  may  front  all  the  uncertainties 
of  the  unknown  future,  sure  of  two  things — that  we 
shall  rest,  and  that  we  shall  stand  in  our  lot.  We  shall 
all  go  where  we  have  fitted  ourselves,  by  God's  grace, 
to  go;  get  what  we  have  fitted  ourselves  to  possess; 


V.13]        A  NEW  YEAR'S  MESSAGE  93 

and  be  what  we  have  made  ourselves.  To  the  Christian 
man  the  word  comes,  'Thou  shalt  stand  in  thy  lot.' 
And  the  other  word  that  was  spoken  about  one  sinner, 
will  be  fulfilled  in  all  whose  lives  have  been  unfitting 
them  for  heaven :  '  Judas  by  transgression  fell,  that  he 
might  go  to  his  own  place.'  He,  too,  stands  in  his  lot. 
Now  settle  which  lot  is  yours. 


HOSEA 
THE  VALLEY  OF  ACHOR 

'I  will  give  her  .  .  .  the  valley  of  Achor  for  a  door  of  hope.'— Hosea  li.  15. 

The  Prophet  Hosea  is  remarkable  for  the  frequent  use 
which  he  makes  of  events  in  the  former  history  of  his 
people.  Their  past  seems  to  him  a  mirror  in  which 
they  may  read  their  future.  He  believes  that  '  which 
is  to  be  hath  already  been,'  the  great  principles  of  the 
divine  government  living  on  through  all  the  ages,  and 
issuing  in  similar  acts  when  the  circumstances  are 
similar.  So  he  foretells  that  there  will  yet  be  once 
more  a  captivity  and  a  bondage,  that  the  old  story  of 
the  wilderness  will  be  repeated  once  more.  In  that 
wilderness  God  will  speak  to  the  heart  of  Israel.  Its 
barrenness  shall  be  changed  into  the  fruitfulness  of 
vineyards,  where  the  purpling  clusters  hang  ripe  for 
the  thirsty  travellers.  And  not  only  will  the  sorrows 
that  He  sends  thus  become  sources  of  refreshment,  but 
the  gloomy  gorge  through  which  they  journey — the 
valley  of  Achor — will  be  a  door  of  hope. 

One  word  is  enough  to  explain  the  allusion.  You 
remember  that  after  the  capture  of  Jericho  by  Joshua, 
the  people  were  baffled  in  their  first  attempt  to  press 
up  through  the  narrow  defile  that  led  from  the  plain  of 
Jordan  to  the  highlands  of  Canaan.  Their  defeat  was 
caused  by  the  covetousness  of  Achan,  who  for  the  sake 


V.  15]         THE  VALLEY  OF  ACHOR  95 

of  some  miserable  spoil  which  he  found  in  a  tent,  broke 
God's  laws,  and  drew  down  shame  on  Israel's  ranks. 
When  the  swift,  terrible  punishment  on  him  had 
purged  the  camp,  victory  again  followed  their  assault, 
and  Achan  lying  stiff  and  stark  below  his  cairn,  they 
pressed  on  up  the  glen  to  their  task  of  conquest.  The 
rugged  valley,  where  that  defeat  and  that  sharp  act  of 
justice  took  place,  was  named  in  memory  thereof,  the 
valley  of  Achor,  that  is,  trouble;  and  our  Prophet's 
promise  is  that  as  then,  so  for  all  future  ages,  the 
complicity  of  God's  people  with  an  evil  world  will  work 
weakness  and  defeat,  but  that,  if  they  will  be  taught  by 
their  trouble  and  will  purge  themselves  of  the  accursed 
thing,  then  the  disasters  will  make  a  way  for  hope  to 
come  to  them  again.  The  figure  which  conveys  this  is 
very  expressive.  The  narrow  gorge  stretches  before 
us,  with  its  dark  overhanging  cliffs  that  almost  shut 
out  the  sky;  the  path  is  rough  and  set  with  sharp 
pebbles;  it  is  narrow,  winding,  steep;  often  it  seems 
to  be  barred  by  some  huge  rock  that  juts  across  it,  and 
there  is  barely  room  for  the  broken  ledge  yielding 
slippery  footing  between  the  beetling  crag  above  and 
the  steep  slope  beneath  that  dips  so  quickly  to  the 
black  torrent  below.  All  is  gloomy,  damp,  hard ;  and 
if  we  look  upwards  the  glen  becomes  more  savage  as  it 
rises,  and  armed  foes  hold  the  very  throat  of  the  pass. 
But,  however  long,  however  barren,  however  rugged, 
however  black,  however  trackless,  we  may  see  if  we 
will,  a  bright  form  descending  the  rocky  way  with 
radiant  eyes  and  calm  lips,  God's  messenger,  Hope; 
and  the  rough  rocks  are  like  the  doorway  through 
which  she  comes  near  to  us  in  our  weary  struggle. 
For  us  all,  dear  friends,  it  is  true.  In  all  our  difficulties 
and  sorrows,  be  they  great  or  small ;  in  our  business 


96  HOSEA  [cH.li. 

perplexities ;  in  the  losses  that  rob  our  homes  of  their 
light ;  in  the  petty  annoyances  that  diffuse  their  irrita- 
tion through  so  much  of  our  days ;  it  is  within  our 
power  to  turn  them  all  into  occasions  for  a  firmer 
grasp  of  God,  and  so  to  make  them  openings  by  which 
a  happier  hope  may  flow  into  our  souls. 

But  the  promise,  like  all  God's  promises,  has  its  well- 
defined  conditions.  Achan  has  to  be  killed  and  put 
safe  out  of  the  way  first,  or  no  shining  Hope  will  stand 
out  against  the  black  walls  of  the  defile.  The  tastes 
which  knit  us  to  the  perishable  world,  the  yearnings 
for  Babylonish  garments  and  wedges  of  gold,  must  be 
coerced  and  subdued.  Swift,  sharp,  unrelenting  justice 
must  be  done  on  the  lust  of  the  flesh,  and  the  lust  of 
the  eye,  and  the  pride  of  life,  if  our  trials  are  ever  to 
become  doors  of  hope.  There  is  no  natural  tendency 
in  the  mere  fact  of  sorrow  and  pain  to  make  God's  love 
more  discernible,  or  to  make  our  hope  any  firmer.  All 
depends  on  how  we  use  the  trial,  or  as  I  say — first  stone 
Achan,  and  then  hope ! 

So,  the  trouble  which  detaches  us  from  earth  gives  us 
new  hope.  Sometimes  the  effect  of  our  sorrows  and 
annoyances  and  difficulties  is  to  rivet  us  more  firmly 
to  earth.  The  eye  has  a  curious  power,  which  they  call 
persistence  of  vision,  of  retaining  the  impression  made 
upon  it,  and  therefore  of  seeming  to  see  the  object  for 
a  definite  time  after  it  has  really  been  withdrawn.  If 
you  whirl  a  bit  of  blazing  stick  round,  you  will  see  a 
circle  of  fire  though  there  is  only  a  point  moving 
rapidly  in  the  circle.  The  eye  has  its  memory  like  the 
soul.  And  the  soul  has  its  power  of  persistence  like 
the  eye,  and  that  power  is  sometimes  kindled  into 
activity  by  the  fact  of  loss.  We  often  see  our  departed 
joys,  and  gaze  upon  them  all  the  more  eagerly  for  their 


T.15]         THE  VALLEY  OF  ACHOR  97 

departure.  The  loss  of  dear  ones  should  stamp  their 
image  on  our  hearts,  and  set  it  as  in  a  golden  glory. 
But  it  sometimes  does  more  than  that ;  it  sometimes 
makes  us  put  the  present  with  its  duties  impatiently 
away  from  us.  Vain  regret,  absorbed  brooding  over 
what  is  gone,  a  sorrow  kept  gaping  long  after  it  should 
have  been  healed,  like  a  grave-mound  off  which  desper- 
ate love  has  pulled  turf  and  flowers,  in  the  vain  attempt 
to  clasp  the  cold  hand  below — in  a  word,  the  trouble 
that  does  not  withdraw  us  from  the  present  will  never 
be  a  door  of  hope,  but  rather  a  grim  gate  for  despair 
to  come  in  at. 

The  trouble  which  knits  us  to  God  gives  us  new  hope. 
That  bright  form  which  comes  down  the  narrow  valley 
is  His  messenger  and  herald — sent  before  His  face.  All 
the  light  of  hope  is  the  reflection  on  our  hearts  of  the 
light  of  God.  Her  silver  beams,  which  shed  quietness 
over  the  darkness  of  earth,  come  only  from  that  great 
Sun.  If  our  hope  is  to  grow  out  of  our  sorrow,  it  must 
be  because  our  sorrow  drives  us  to  God.  It  is  only 
when  we  by  faith  stand  in  His  grace,  and  live  in  the 
conscious  fellowship  of  peace  with  Him,  that  we  rejoice 
in  hope.  If  we  would  see  Hope  drawing  near  to  us,  we 
must  fix  our  eyes  not  on  Jericho  that  lies  behind  among 
its  palm-trees,  though  it  has  memories  of  conquests,  and 
attractions  of  fertility  and  repose,  nor  on  the  corpse 
that  lies  below  that  pile  of  stones,  nor  on  the  narrow 
way  and  the  strong  enemy  in  front  there ;  but  higher 
up,  on  the  blue  sky  that  spreads  peaceful  above  the 
highest  summits  of  the  pass,  and  from  the  heavens  we 
shall  see  the  angel  coming  to  us.  Sorrow  forsakes  its 
own  nature,  and  leads  in  its  own  opposite,  when  sorrow 
helps  us  to  see  God.  It  clears  away  the  thick  trees,  and 
lets  the  sunlight  into  the  forest  shades,  and  then  in 

G 


98  HOSEA  [CH.  II. 

time  corn  will  grow.  Hope  is  but  the  brightness  that 
goes  before  God's  face,  and  if  we  would  see  it  we  must 
look  at  Him. 

The  trouble  which  we  bear  rightly  with  God's  help, 
gives  new  hope.  If  we  have  made  our  sorrow  an 
occasion  for  learning,  by  living  experience,  somewhat 
more  of  His  exquisitely  varied  and  ever  ready  power 
to  aid  and  bless,  then  it  will  teach  us  firmer  confidence 
in  these  inexhaustible  resources  which  we  have  thus 
once  more  proved.  '  Tribulation  worketh  patience,  and 
patience  experience,  and  experience  hope.'  That  is  the 
order.  You  cannot  put  patience  and  experience  into 
a  parenthesis,  and  omitting  them,  bring  hope  out  of 
tribulation.  But  if,  in  my  sorrow,  I  have  been  able  to 
keep  quiet  because  I  have  had  hold  of  God's  hand,  and 
if  in  that  unstruggling  submission  I  have  found  that 
from  His  hand  I  have  been  upheld,  and  had  strength 
above  mine  own  infused  into  me,  then  my  memory  will 
give  the  threads  with  which  Hope  weaves  her  bright 
web.  I  build  upon  two  things — God's  unchangeableness, 
and  His  help  already  received ;  and  upon  these  strong 
foundations  I  may  wisely  and  safely  rear  a  palace  of 
Hope,  which  shall  never  prove  a  castle  in  the  air.  The 
past,  when  it  is  God's  past,  is  the  surest  pledge  for  the 
future.  Because  He  has  been  with  us  in  six  troubles, 
therefore  we  may  be  sure  that  in  seven  He  will  not 
forsake  us,  I  said  that  the  light  of  hope  was  the 
brightnc-i  from  the  face  of  God.  I  may  say  again, 
that  the  light  of  hope  which  fills  our  sky  is  like  that 
which,  on  happy  summer  nights,  lives  till  morning  in 
the  calm  west,  and  with  its  colourless,  tranquil  beauty, 
tells  of  a  yesterday  of  unclouded  splendour,  and  pro- 
phesies a  to-morrow  yet  more  abundant.  The  glow 
from  a  sun  that  is  set,  the  experience  of  past  deliver- 


V.16]        THE  VALLEY  OF  ACHOR  99 

ances,  is  the  truest  light  of  hope  to  light  our  way 
through  the  night  of  life. 

One  of  the  psalms  gives  us,  in  different  form,  a 
metaphor  and  a  promise  substantially  the  same  as 
that  of  this  text.  'Blessed  are  the  men  who,  passing 
through  the  valley  of  weeping,  make  it  a  well.'  They 
gather  their  tears,  as  it  were,  into  the  cisterns  by  the 
wayside,  and  draw  refreshment  and  strength  from 
their  very  sorrows,  and  then,  when  thus  we  in  our 
wise  husbandry  have  irrigated  the  soil  with  the 
gathered  results  of  our  sorrows,  the  heavens  bend 
over  us,  and  weep  their  gracious  tears,  and  'the  rain 
also  covereth  it  with  blessings.'  '  No  chastisement  for 
the  present  seemeth  to  be  joyous,  but  grievous ;  never- 
theless, afterward  it  yieldeth  the  peaceable  fruit  of 
righteousness.' 

Then,  dear  friends,  let  us  set  ourselves  with  our 
loins  girt  to  the  road.  Never  mind  how  hard  it  may 
be  to  climb.  The  slope  of  the  valley  of  trouble  is  ever 
upwards.  Never  mind  how  dark  is  the  shadow  of 
death  which  stretches  athwart  it.  If  there  were  no  sun 
there  would  be  no  shadow;  presently  the  sun  will  be 
right  overhead,  and  there  will  be  no  shadow  then. 
Never  mind  how  black  it  may  look  ahead,  or  how 
frowning  the  rocks.  From  between  their  narrowest 
gorge  you  may  see,  if  you  will,  the  guide  whom  God 
has  sent  you,  and  that  Angel  of  Hope  will  light  up  all 
the  darkness,  and  will  only  fade  away  when  she  is  lost 
in  the  sevenfold  brightness  of  that  upper  land,  whereof 
our  '  God  Himself  is  Sun  and  Moon ' — the  true  Canaan, 
to  whose  everlasting  mountains  the  steep  way  of  life 
has  climbed  at  last  through  valleys  of  trouble,  and  of 
weeping,  and  of  the  shadow  of  death. 


•LET  HIM  ALONE* 

'Bphraim  is  joined  to  idols :  let  him  alone.'— Hosea  iv.  17. 

The  tribe  of  Ephraim  was  the  most  important  member 
of  the  kingdom  of  Israel;  consequently  its  name  was 
not  unnaturally  sometimes  used  in  a  wider  application 
for  the  whole  of  the  kingdom,  of  which  it  was  the 
principal  part.  Being  the  'predominant  partner,'  its 
name  was  used  alone  for  that  of  the  whole  firm,  just 
as  in  our  own  empire,  we  often  say  'England,'  meaning 
thereby  the  three  kingdoms :  England,  Scotland,  and 
Ireland.  So  '  Ephraim '  here  does  not  mean  the  single 
tribe,  but  the  whole  kingdom  of  Israel. 

Now  Hosea  himself  was  a  Northerner,  a  subject  of 
that  kingdom  ;  and  its  iniquities  and  idolatries  weighed 
heavilyon  his  heart,  and  were  ripped  up  and  brought 
to  light  with  burning  eloquence  in  his  prophesies.  The 
words  of  my  text  have  often,  and  terribly,  been  mis- 
understood. And  I  wish  now  to  try  to  bring  out  their 
true  meaning  and  bearing.  They  have  a  message  for 
us  quite  as  much  as  they  had  for  the  people  who  origin- 
ally received  them. 

I.  I  must  begin  by  explaining  what,  in  my  judgment, 
this  text  does  not  mean. 

First,  it  is  not  what  it  is  often  taken  to  be,  a  threaten- 
ing of  God's  abandoning  of  the  idolatrous  nation.  I  dare 
say  we  have  all  heard  grim  sermons  from  this  text, 
which  have  taken  that  view  of  it,  and  have  tried  to 
frighten  men  into  believing  now,  by  telling  them  that, 
perhaps,  if  they  do  not,  God  will  never  move  on  their 
hearts,  or  deal  with  them  any  more,  but  withdraw  His 
grace,  and  leave  them  to  insensibility.    There  is  not  a 

100 


V.17]  *LET  HIM  ALONE*  101 

word  of  that  sort  in  the  text.  Plainly  enough  it  is  not 
so,  for  this  vehement  utterance  of  the  Prophet  is  not  a 
declaration  as  to  God,  and  what  He  is  going  to  do,  but 
it  is  a  commandment  to  some  men,  telling  them  what 
they  are  to  do.  'Let  him  alone'  does  not  mean  the 
same  thing  as  '/  will  let  him  alone';  and  if  people 
had  only  read  with  a  little  more  care,  they  would  have 
been  delivered  from  perpetrating  a  libel  on  the  divine 
lovingkindness  and  forbearance. 

It  is  clear  enough,  too,  that  such  a  meaning  as  that 
which  has  been  forced  upon  the  words  of  my  text,  and 
is  the  common  use  of  it,  I  believe,  in  many  evangelical 
circles,  cannot  be  its  real  meaning,  because  the  very 
fact  that  Hosea  was  prophesying  to  call  Ephraim  from 
his  sin  showed  that  God  had  not  let  Ephraim  alone,  but 
was  wooing  him  by  His  prophet,  and  seeking  to  win 
him  back  by  the  words  of  his  mouth.  God  was  doing 
all  that  He  could  do,  rising  early  and  sending  His 
messenger  and  calling  to  Ephraim:  'Turn  ye!  Turn 
ye!  why  will  ye  die?'  For  Hosea,  in  the  very  act  of 
pleading  with  Israel  on  God's  behalf,  to  have  declared 
that  God  had  abandoned  it,  and  ceased  to  plead,  would 
have  been  a  palpable  absurdity  and  contradiction. 

But  beyond  considerations  of  the  context,  other 
reasons  conclusively  negative  such  an  interpretation 
of  this  text.  I,  for  my  part,  do  not  believe  that  there 
are  any  bounds  or  end  to  God's  forbearing  pleading 
with  men  in  this  life.  I  take,  as  true,  the  great  words 
of  the  old  Psalm,  in  their  simplest  sense — 'His  mercy 
endureth  for  ever';  and  I  fall  back  upon  the  other 
words  which  a  penitent  had  learned  to  be  true  by 
reflecting  on  the  greatness  of  his  own  sin:  'With 
Him  are  multitudes  of  redemptions ' ;  and  I  turn  from 
psalmists  and  prophets  to  the  Master  who  showed  us 


102  HOSEA  [CH.IV. 

God's  heart,  and  knew  what  He  spake  when  He  laid 
it  down  as  the  law  and  the  measure  of  human  for- 
giveness which  was  moulded  upon  the  pattern  of 
the  divine,  that  it  should  be  'seventy  times  seven' — 
the  multiplication  of  both  the  perfect  numbers  into 
themselves — than  which  there  can  be  no  grander  ex- 
pression for  absolute  innumerableness  and  unfailing 
continuance. 

No,  no!  men  may  say  to  God,  'Speak  no  more  to 
us ' ;  or  they  may  get  so  far  away  from  Him,  as  that 
they  only  hear  God's  pleading  voice,  dim  and  faint, 
like  a  voice  in  a  dream.  But  surely  the  history  of 
His  progressive  revelation  shows  us  that,  rather  than 
such  abandonment  of  the  worst,  the  law  of  the 
divine  dealing  is  that  the  deafer  the  man,  the  more 
piercing  the  voice  beseeching  and  warning.  The 
attraction  of  gravitation  decreases  as  distance  in- 
creases, but  the  further  away  we  are  from  Him,  the 
stronger  is  the  attraction  which  issues  from  Him,  and 
would  draw  us  to  Himself. 

Clear  away,  then,  altogether  out  of  your  minds 
any  notion  that  there  is  here  declared  what,  in  my 
judgment,  is  not  declared  anywhere  in  the  Bible, 
and  never  occurs  in  the  divine  dealings  with  men. 
Be  sure  that  He  never  ceases  to  seek  to  draw  the 
most  obstinate,  idolatrous,  and  rebellious  heart  to 
Himself.  That  divine  charity  'suffereth  long,  and 
is  kind'  .  .  ,  'hopeth  all  things,  and  beareth  all 
things.' 

Again,  let  me  point  out  that  the  words  of  my  text 
do  not  enjoin  the  cessation  of  the  efforts  of  Christian 
people  for  the  recovery  of  the  most  deeply  sunken  in 
sin.  'Let  him  alone'  is  a  commandment,  and  it  is  a 
commandment  to  God's  Church,  but  it  is  not  a  com- 


V.17]  *LET  HIM  ALONE'  103 

mandment  to  despair  of  any  that  they  may  be  brought 
into  the  fold,  or  to  give  up  efforts  to  that  end.  If 
our  Father  in  heaven  never  ceases  to  bear  in  His 
heart  His  prodigal  children,  it  does  not  become  those 
prodigals,  who  have  come  back,  to  think  that  any 
of  their  brethren  are  too  far  away  to  be  drawn  by 
their  loving  proclamation  of  the  Father's  heart  of 
love. 

There  is  the  glory  of  our  Gospel,  that,  taking  far 
sadder,  graver  views  of  what  sin  and  alienation  from 
God  are,  than  the  world's  philosophers  and  philan- 
thropists do,  it  surpasses  them  just  as  much  as  in  the 
superb  confidence  with  which  it  sets  itself  to  the  cure 
of  the  disease  as  in  the  unflinching  clearness  with  which 
it  diagnoses  the  disease  as  fatal,  if  it  be  not  dealt  with 
by  the  all-healing  Gospel.  All  other  methods  for  the 
restoration  and  elevation  of  mankind  are  compelled  to 
recognise  that  there  is  an  obstinate  residuum  that  will 
not  and  cannot  be  reached  by  their  efforts.  It  used 
to  be  said  that  some  old  cannon-balls,  that  had  been 
brought  from  some  of  the  battlefields  of  the  Peninsula, 
resisted  all  attempts  to  melt  them  down ;  so  there  are 
'  cannon-balls,'  as  it  were,  amongst  the  obstinate  evil- 
doers, and  the  degraded  and  '  dangerous '  classes,  which 
mark  the  despair  of  our  modern  reformers  and  civilisers 
and  elevators,  for  no  fire  in  their  furnaces  can  melt 
down  their  hardness.  No ;  but  there  is  the  furnace  of 
the  Lord  in  Jerusalem,  and  the  fire  of  God  in  Zion, 
which  can  melt  them  down,  and  has  done  so  a  hundred 
and  a  thousand  times,  and  is  as  able  to  do  it  again  to- 
day as  it  ever  was.  Despair  of  no  human  soul.  That 
boundless  confidence  in  the  power  of  the  Gospel  is 
the  duty  of  the  Christian  Church.  'The  damsel  is 
not  dead,  but  sleepeth ! '    They  laughed  Him  to  scorn, 


104  HOSE  A  [CH.IV. 

knowing  that  she  was  dead.  But  He  put  out  His 
hand,  and  said  unto  her  '  Talitha  cumi,  I  say  unto 
thee,  Arise ! '  When  we  stand  on  one  side  of  the  bed 
with  your  social  reformers  on  the  other,  and  say 
'The  damsel  is  not  dead,  but  sleepeth,'  they  laugh 
us  to  scorn,  and  bid  us  try  our  Gospel  upon  these 
people  in  our  slums,  or  on  those  heathens  in  the 
New  Hebrides.  We  have  the  right  to  answer,  'We 
have  tried  it,  and  man  after  man,  and  woman  after 
woman  have  risen  from  the  sick-bed,  like  Peter's  wife's 
mother;  and  the  fever  has  left  them,  and  they  have 
ministered  unto  Him.  There  are  no  people  in  the 
world  about  whom  Christians  need  despair,  none  that 
Christ's  Gospel  cannot  redeem.  Whatever  my  text 
means,  it  does  not  mean  cowardly  and  unbelieving 
doubt  as  to  the  power  of  the  Gospel  on  the  most 
degraded  and  sinful. 

II.  So,  the  text  enjoins  on  the  Christian  Church 
separation  from  an  idolatrous  world. 

'Ephraim  is  joined  to  idols.'  Do  you  'let  him  alone.' 
Now,  there  has  been  much  harm  done  by  misreading 
the  force  of  the  injunction  of  separation  from  the 
world.  There  is  a  great  deal  of  union  and  association 
with  the  most  godless  people  in  our  circle,  which  is 
inevitable.  Family  bonds,  business  connections,  civic 
obligations — all  these  require  that  the  Church  shall 
not  withdraw  from  the  world.  There  is  the  wide 
common  ground  of  Politics  and  Art  and  Literature, 
and  a  hundred  other  interests,  on  which  it  does  Chris- 
tian men  no  good,  and  the  world  much  harm,  if  the 
former  withdraw  to  themselves,  and  on  the  plea  of 
superior  sanctity,  leave  these  great  departments  of 
interest  and  influence  to  be  occupied  only  by  non- 
Christians. 


V.17]  'LET  HIM  ALONE*  105 

Then,  besides  these  thoughts  of  necessary  union  and 
association  upon  common  ground,  there  is  the  other 
consideration  that  absolute  separation  would  defeat 
the  very  purpose  for  which  Christian  people  are  here. 
'Ye  are  the  salt  of  the  earth,'  said  Christ.  Yes,  and 
if  you  keep  the  meat  on  one  plate  and  the  salt  on 
another,  what  good  will  the  salt  be?  It  has  to  be 
rubbed  in  particle  by  particle,  and  brought  into  con- 
tact over  all  the  surface,  and  down  into  the  depths 
of  the  meat  that  it  is  to  preserve  from  putrefaction. 
And  no  Christian  churches  or  individuals  do  their 
duty,  and  fulfil  their  function  on  earth,  unless  they 
are  thus  closely  associated  and  intermingled  with  the 
world  that  they  should  be  trying  to  leaven  and  save. 
A  cloistered  solitude,  or  a  proud  standing  apart  from 
the  ordinary  movements  of  the  community,  or  a 
neglect,  on  the  plea  of  our  higher  duties,  of  the  duties 
of  the  citizen  of  a  free  country — these  are  not  the 
ways  to  fulfil  the  exhortation  of  my  text.  'Let  the 
dead  bury  their  dead,'  said  Christ;  but  He  did  not 
mean  that  His  Church  was  to  stand  apart  from  the 
world,  and  let  it  go  its  own  way.  It  is  a  bad  thing 
for  both  when  little  Christian  coteries  gather  them- 
selves together,  and  talk  about  their  own  goodness  and 
religion,  and  leave  the  world  to  perish.  Clotted  blood 
is  death ;  circulated,  it  is  life. 

But,  whilst  all  this  is  perfectly  true — and  there  are 
associations  that  we  must  not  break  if  we  are  to  do 
our  work  as  Christian  people — it  is  also  true  that  it 
is  possible,  in  the  closest  unions  with  men  who  do  not 
share  our  faith,  to  do  the  same  thing  that  they  are 
doing,  with  a  difference  which  separates  us  from  them, 
even  whilst  we  are  united  with  them.  They  tell  us 
that,  however  dense  any  material  substance  may  seem 


106  HOSEA  [CH.  IV. 

to  be,  there  is  always  a  film  of  air  between  contiguous 
particles.  And  there  should  be  a  film  between  us  and 
our  Christless  friends  and  companions  and  partners, 
not  perceptible  perhaps  to  a  superficial  observer,  but 
most  real.  If  we  do  our  common  work  as  a  religious 
duty,  and  in  the  exercise  of  all  our  daily  occupations 
*set  the  Lord  always  before'  us,  however  closely  we 
may  be  associated  with  people  who  do  not  so  live, 
they  will  know  the  difference;  never  fear!  And  you 
will  know  the  difference,  and  will  not  be  identified 
with  them,  but  separate  in  a  wholesome  fashion  from 
them. 

And,  dear  brethren,  if  I  may  go  a  step  further,  I 
would  venture  to  say  that  it  seems  to  me  that  our 
Christian  communities  want  few  things  more  in  this 
day  than  the  reiteration  of  the  old  saying,  'Have  no 
fellowship  with  the  unfruitful  works  of  darkness,  but 
rather,  reprove  them.'  There  is  so  much  in  this  time 
to  break  down  the  separation  between  him  that 
believeth  in  Christ  and  him  that  doth  not;  narrow- 
ness has  come  to  be  thought  such  an  enormous 
wickedness,  and  liberality  is  so  lauded  by  all  sorts 
of  superficial  people,  that  Christian  men  need  to  bo 
summoned  back  to  their  standard.  '  Being  let  go, 
they  went  to  their  own  company' — there  is  a  natural 
affinity  which  should,  and  will,  if  our  faith  is  vital, 
draw  us  to  those  who,  on  the  gravest  and  solemnest 
things,  have  the  same  thoughts,  the  same  hopes,  the 
same  faith.  I  do  not  urge  you,  God  knows,  to  be 
bigoted  and  narrow,  and  shut  yourselves  up  in  your 
faith,  and  leave  the  world  to  go  to  the  devil;  but  I 
do  not  wish,  either,  that  Christian  people  should  fling 
themselves  into  the  arms  and  nestle  in  the  hearts  of 
persons  who  do  not  share  with  them  'like  precious  faith.* 


V.17]  'LET  HIM  ALONE'  107 

I  am  sure  that  there  are  many  Christian  people,  old 
and  young,  who  are  suffering  in  their  religious  life 
because  they  are  neglecting  this  commandment  of  my 
text.  'Let  him  alone.'  There  can  be  no  deep  affec- 
tion, and,  most  of  all — if  I  may  venture  on  such 
ground — no  wedded  love  worth  the  name,  where  there 
is  not  unanimity  in  regard  to  the  deepest  matters.  It 
does  not  say  much  for  the  religion  of  a  professing 
Christian  who  finds  his  heart's  friends  and  his  chosen 
companions  in  people  that  have  no  sympathy  with 
the  religion  which  he  professes.  It  does  not  say 
much  for  you  if  it  is  so  with  you,  for  the  Christian, 
whom  you  like  least,  is  nearer  you  in  the  depths  of 
your  true  self  than  is  the  non-Christian  whom  you 
love  most. 

Be  sure,  too,  that  if  we  mix  ourselves  up  with 
Ephraim,  we  shall  find  ourselves  grovelling  beside 
him  before  his  idols  ere  long.  Godlessness  is  infec- 
tious. Many  a  young  woman,  a  professing  Christian, 
has  married  a  godless  man  in  the  fond  hope  that  she 
might  win  him.  It  is  a  great  deal  more  frequently 
the  case  that  he  perverts  her  than  that  she  converts 
him.  Do  not  let  us  knit  ourselves  in  these  close 
bonds  with  the  worshippers  of  idols,  lest  we  'learn 
their  ways,  and  get  a  snare  into  our  souls.'  'Be  not 
unequally  yoked  with  unbelievers.  What  fellowship 
hath  light  with  darkness?  Wherefore,  come  out 
from  among  them  and  be  ye  separate,  saith  the 
Lord.  Touch  not  the  unclean  thing,  and  I  will 
be  a  Father  unto  you,  and  ye  shall  be  My  sons  and 
My  daughters.' 


•PHYSICIANS  OF  NO  VALUE* 

*  When  Ephraim  saw  his  sickness,  and  Judah  saw  his  wound,  then  went  Ephraim 
to  Assyria,  and  sent  to  king  Jareh:  but  he  is  not  able  to  heal  you,  neither  shall 
he  cure  you  of  your  wound.'— Hosea  v.  13  (R.V.). 

The  long  tragedy  which  ended  in  the  destruction  of  the 
Northern  Kingdom  by  Assyrian  invasion  was  already 
beginning  to  develop  in  Hosea's  time.  The  mistaken 
politics  of  the  kings  of  Israel  led  them  to  seek  an  ally 
where  they  should  have  dreaded  an  enemy.  As  Hosea 
puts  it  in  figurative  fashion,  Ephraim's  discovery  of  his 
*  sickness '  sent  him  in  the  vain  quest  for  help  to  the 
apparent  source  of  the  '  sickness,'  that  is  to  Assyria, 
whose  king  in  the  text  is  described  by  a  name  which  is 
not  his  real  name,  but  is  a  significant  epithet,  as  the 
miargin  puts  it,  'a  king  that  should  contend';  and 
who,  of  course,  was  not  able  to  heal  nor  to  cure  the 
wounds,  which  he  had  inflicted.  Ephraim's  suicidal 
folly  is  but  one  illustration  of  a  universal  madness 
which  drives  men  to  seek  for  the  healing  of  their 
misery,  and  the  alleviation  of  their  discomfort,  in  the 
repetition  of  the  very  acts  which  brought  these  about. 
The  attempt  to  get  relief  in  such  a  fashion,  of  course, 
fails ;  for  as  the  verse  before  our  text  emphatically 
proclaims,  it  is  God  who  has  been  'as  a  moth  unto 
Ephraim,'  gnawing  away  his  strength  :  and  it  is  only 
He  who  can  heal,  since  in  reality  it  is  He,  and  not  the 
quarrelsome  king  of  Assyria,  who  has  inflicted  the 
sickness. 

Thus  understood,  the  text  carries  wide  lessons,  and 
may  serve  us  as  a  starting-point  for  considering  man's 
discovery  of  his  '  sickness,'  man's  mad  way  of  seeking 
healing,  God's  way  of  giving  it. 

I.  First,  then,  man's  discovery  of  his  sickness. 

108 


V.  13]   'PHYSICIANS  OF  NO  VALUE'       109 

The  greater  part  of  most  lives  is  spent  in  mechanical, 
unreflecting  repetition  of  daily  duties  and  pleasures. 
We  are  all  apt  to  live  on  the  surface,  and  it  requires  an 
effort,  which  we  are  too  indolent  to  make  except  under 
the  impulse  of  some  arresting  motive,  to  descend  into 
the  depths  of  our  own  souls,  and  there  to  face  the 
solemn  facts  of  our  own  personality.  The  last  place 
with  which  most  of  us  are  familiar,  is  our  innermost 
self.  Men  are  dimly  conscious  that  things  within  are 
not  well  with  them ;  but  it  is  only  one  here  and  there 
that  says  so  distinctly  to  himself,  and  takes  the  further 
step  of  thoroughly  investigating  the  cause.  But  that 
superficial  life  is  at  the  mercy  of  a  thousand  accidents, 
each  one  of  which  may  break  through  the  thin  film, 
and  lay  bare  the  black  depths. 

But  there  is  another  aspect  of  this  discovery  of  sick- 
ness, far  graver  than  the  mere  consciousness  of  unrest. 
Ephraim  does  not  see  his  sickness  unless  he  sees  his  sin. 
The  greater  part  of  every  life  is  spent  without  that  deep, 
all-pervading  sense  of  discord  between  itself  and  God. 
Small  and  recurrent  faults  may  evoke  recurring  re- 
monstrances of  conscience,  but  that  is  a  very  different 
thing  from  the  deep  tones  and  the  clear  voice  of  con- 
demnation in  respect  to  one's  whole  life  and  character 
which  sounds  in  a  heart  that  has  learned  how  '  deceit- 
ful and  desperately  wicked'  it  is.  Such  a  conviction 
may  flash  upon  a  man  at  any  moment,  and  from  a 
hundred  causes.  A  sorrow,  a  sunset-sky,  a  grave,  a 
sermon,  may  produce  it. 

But  even  when  we  have  come  to  recognise  clearly 
our  unrest,  we  have  gone  but  part  of  the  way,  we  have 
become  conscious  of  a  symptom,  not  of  the  disease. 
Why  is  it  that  man  is  alone  among  the  creatures  in 
that  discontent  with  externals,  and  that  dissatisfaction 


110  HOSE  A  [CH.V. 

with  himself?  *  Foxes  have  holes,  and  the  birds  of  the 
air  have  roosting-places ' :  why  is  it  that  amongst  all 
God's  happy  creatures,  and  God's  shining  stars,  men 
stand  *  strangers  in  a  strange  land,'  and  are  cursed  with 
a  restlessness  which  has  not '  where  to  lay  its  head '  ?  The 
consciousness  of  unrest  is  but  the  agitation  of  the  limbs 
which  indicates  disease.  That  disease  is  the  twitching 
paralysis  of  sin.  Like  '  the  pestilence  that  walketh  in 
darkness,'  it  has  a  fell  power  of  concealing  itself,  and 
the  man  whose  sins  are  the  greatest  is  always  the  least 
conscious  of  them.  He  dwells  in  a  region  where  the 
malaria  is  so  all-pervading  that  the  inhabitants  do  not 
know  what  the  sweetness  of  an  unpoisoned  atmosphere 
is.  If  there  is  a  '  worst  man'  in  the  world,  we  may  be 
very  sure  that  no  conscience  is  less  troubled  than  his  is. 
So  the  question  may  well  be  urged  on  those  so  terribly 
numerous  amongst  us,  whose  very  unconsciousness  of 
their  true  condition  is  the  most  fatal  symptom  of  their 
fatal  disease.  What  is  the  worth  of  a  peace  which  is 
only  secured  by  ignoring  realities,  and  which  can  be 
shattered  into  fragments  by  anything  that  compels  a 
man  to  see  himself  as  he  is  ?  In  such  a  fool's  paradise 
thousands  of  us  live.  'Use  and  wont,'  the  continual 
occupation  with  the  trifles  of  our  daily  lives,  the  fleet- 
ing satisfactions  of  our  animal  nature,  the  shallow 
wisdom  which  bids  us  '  let  sleeping  dogs  lie,'  all  conspire 
to  mask,  to  many  consciences,  their  unrest  and  their 
sin.  We  abstain  from  lifting  the  curtain  behind  which 
the  serpent  lies  coiled  in  our  hearts,  because  we  dread 
to  see  its  loathly  length,  and  to  rouse  it  to  lift  its 
malignant  head,  and  to  strike  with  its  forked  tongue. 
But  sooner  or  later — may  it  not  be  too  late — we  shall 
be  set  face  to  face  with  the  dark  recess,  and  discover 
the  foul  reptile  that  has  all  the  while  been  coiled  there. 


V.  13]    *  PHYSICIANS  OF  NO  VALUE'      111 

II.  Man's  mad  way  of  seeking  healing. 

Can  there  be  a  more  absurd  course  of  action  than 
that  recorded  in  our  text?  'When  Ephraim  saw  his 
sickness,  then  went  Ephraim  to  Assyria.'  The  Northern 
Kingdom  sought  for  the  healing  of  their  national 
calamities  from  the  very  cause  of  their  national 
calamities,  and  in  repetition  of  their  national  sin.  A 
hopeful  policy,  and  one  which  speedily  ended  in  the  only 
possible  result !  But  that  insanity  was  but  a  sample 
of  the  infatuation  which  besets  us  all.  When  we  are 
conscious  of  our  unrest,  are  we  not  all  tempted  to  seek 
to  conceal  it  with  what  has  made  it  ?  Take  examples 
from  the  grosser  forms  of  animal  indulgence.  The 
drunkard's  vulgar  proverb  recommending  '  a  hair  of  the 
dog  that  bit  you,'  is  but  a  coarse  expression  of  a  common 
fault.  He  is  wretched  until '  another  glass '  steadies,  for 
a  moment,  his  trembling  hand,  and  gives  a  brief  stimulus 
to  his  nerves.  They  say  that  the  Styrian  peasants,  who 
habitually  eat  large  quantities  of  arsenic,  show  symp- 
toms of  poison  if  they  leave  it  off  suddenly.  These  are 
but  samples,  in  the  physical  region,  of  a  tendency  which 
runs  through  all  lixe,  and  leads  men  to  drown  thought 
by  plunging  into  the  thick  of  the  worldly  absorptions 
that  really  cause  their  unrest.  The  least  persistent  of 
men  is  strangely  obstinate  in  his  adherence  to  old 
ways,  in  spite  of  all  experience  of  their  crooked 
slipperiness.  We  wonder  at  the  jieasants  who  have 
their  cottages  and  vineyards  on  the  slopes  of  Vesuvius, 
and  who  build  them,  and  plant  them,  over  and  over 
again  after  each  destructive  eruption.  The  tragedy 
of  Israel  is  repeated  in  many  of  our  lives ;  and  the 
summing  up  of  the  abortive  efforts  of  one  of  its 
kings  to  recover  power  by  following  the  gods  that 
had    betrayed    him,    might    be    the    epitaph    of  the 


112  HOSEA  [CH.V. 

infatuated  men  who  see  their  sickness  and  seek  to 
heal  it  by  renewed  deyotion  to  the  idols  who  occasioned 
it :  '  They  were  the  ruin  of  him  and  of  all  Israel.'  The 
experience  of  the  woman  who  had  '  spent  all  her  living 
on  physicians,  and  was  nothing  the  better,  but  rather 
the  worse,'  sums  up  the  sad  story  of  many  a  life. 

But  again  the  sense  of  sin  sometimes  seeks  to  conceal 
itself  by  repetition  of  sin.  When  the  dormant  snake 
begins  to  stir,  it  is  lulled  to  sleep  again  by  absorption 
of  occupations,  or  by  an  obstinate  refusal  to  look  in- 
wards, and  often  by  plunging  once  more  into  the  sin 
which  has  brought  about  the  sickness.  To  seek  thus  for 
ease  from  the  stings  of  conscience,  is  like  trying  to  silence 
a  buzzing  in  the  head  by  standing  beside  Niagara  thun- 
dering in  our  ears.  They  used  to  beat  the  drums  when 
a  martyr  died,  in  order  to  drown  his  testimony ;  and  so 
foolish  men  seek  to  silence  the  voice  of  conscience  by 
letting  passions  shout  their  loudest.  It  needs  no  words 
to  demonstrate  the  incurable  folly  of  such  conduct ;  but 
alas,  it  takes  many  words  far  stronger  than  mine  to 
press  home  the  folly  upon  men.  The  condition  of  such 
a  half-awakened  conscience  is  very  critical  if  it  is 
soothed  by  any  means  by  which  it  is  weakened  and 
its  possessor  worsened.  In  the  sickness  of  the  soul 
homoeopathic  treatment  is  a  delusion.  Ephraim  may 
go  to  Assyria,  but  there  is  no  healing  of  him  there. 

III.  God's  way  of  giving  true  healing. 

Ephraim  thought  that,  because  the  wounds  were 
inflicted  by  Assyria,  it  was  the  source  to  which  to 
apply  for  bandages  and  balm.  If  it  had  realised  that 
Assyria  was  but  the  battle-axe  wherewith  the  hand 
of  God  struck  it,  it  would  have  learned  that  from 
God  alone  could  come  healing  and  health.  The  unrest 
which  betrays  the  presence  in  our  souls  of  a  deep- 


T.  13]    *  PHYSICIANS  OF  NO  VALUE'      118 

seated  sin,  is  a  divine  messenger.  We  terribly  misin- 
terpret the  true  source  of  all  that  disturbs  us  when  we 
attribute  it  only  to  the  occasions  which  bring  it  about ; 
for  the  one  purpose  of  all  our  restlessness  is  to  drive 
us  nearer  to  God,  and  to  wrench  us  away  from  our 
Assyria.  The  true  issue  of  Ephraim's  sickness  would 
have  been  the  penitent  cry, '  Come,  let  us  return  to  the 
Lord  our  God,  for  He  hath  smitten,  and  He  will  bind 
us  up.'  It  is  in  the  consciousness  of  loving  nearness  to 
Him  that  all  our  unrest  is  soothed,  and  the  heaving 
ocean  in  our  hearts  becomes  as  a  summer's  sea  and 
•birds  of  peace  sit  brooding  on  the  charmed  waves.'  It 
is  in  that  same  consciousness  that  conscience  ceases  to 
condemn,  and  loses  its  sting.  The  prophet  from  whom 
our  text  is  taken  ends  his  wonderful  ministry,  that  had 
been  full  of  fiery  denunciations  and  dark  prophecies, 
with  words  that  are  only  surpassed  in  their  tenderness 
and  the  outpouring  of  the  heart  of  God,  by  the  fuller 
revelation  in  Jesus  Christ :  '  O  Israel,  return  unto  the 
Lord  thy  God.  Take  with  you  words,  and  return  unto 
the  Lord,  and  say  unto  Him :  Assyria  shall  not  save  us, 
for  in  Thee  the  fatherless  findeth  mercy.'  The  divine 
answer  which  he  was  commissioned  to  bring  to  the 
penitent  Israel — '  I  will  heal  their  backslidings,  I  will 
love  them  freely ;  if  Mine  anger  is  turned  away  from 
Me' — is,  in  all  its  wealth  of  forgiving  love  but  an 
imperfect  prophecy  of  the  great  Physician,  from  the 
hem  of  whose  garment  flowed  out  power  to  one  who 
'  had  spent  all  her  living  on  physicians  and  could  not 
be  healed  of  any,'  and  who  confirmed  to  her  the  power 
which  she  had  thought  to  steal  from  Him  unawares 
by  the  gracious  words  which  bound  her  to  Him  for 
ever — •  Daughter,  thy  faith  hath  made  thee  whole ;  go 
in  peace.' 

H 


•FRUIT  WHICH  IS  DEATH' 

'Israel  is  an  empty  vine,  he  bringeth  forth  fruit  unto  himself:  according  to  the 
multitude  of  his  fruit  he  hath  increased  the  altars  ;  according  to  the  goodness  of 
his  land  they  have  made  goodly  images.  2.  Their  heart  is  divided ;  nowchall  they 
be  found  faulty:  He  shall  break  down  their  altars,  He  shall  spoil  their  images. 
3.  For  now  they  shall  say,  We  have  no  king,  because  we  feared  not  the  Lord; 
what  then  should  a  king  do  to  us?  i.  They  have  spoken  words,  swearing  falsely 
in  making  a  covenant :  thus  judgment  springeth  up  as  hemlock  in  the  furrows  of 
the  field.  5.  The  inhabitants  of  Samaria  shall  fear  because  of  the  calves  of  Beth- 
aven :  for  the  people  thereof  shall  mourn  over  it,  and  the  priests  thereof  that 
rejoiced  on  it,  for  the  glory  thereof,  because  it  is  departed  from  it.  6.  It  shall  be 
also  carried  unto  Assyria  for  a  present  to  king  Jareb :  Ephraim  shall  receive 
shame,  and  Israel  shall  be  ashamed  of  his  own  counsel.  7.  As  for  Samaria,  her 
king  is  cut  off  as  the  foam  upon  the  water.  8.  The  high  places  also  of  Aven,  the 
sin  of  Israel,  shall  be  destroyed :  the  thorn  and  the  thistle  shall  come  up  on  their 
altars ;  and  they  shall  say  to  the  mountains.  Cover  us ;  and  to  the  hills.  Fall  on  us. 
9.  O  Israel,  thou  hast  sinned  from  the  days  of  Gibcah  :  there  they  stood  :  the  battle 
in  Gibeah  against  the  children  of  iniquity  did  not  overtake  them.  10.  It  is  in  my 
desire  that  I  should  chastise  them ;  and  the  people  shall  be  gathered  against  them, 
when  they  shall  bind  themselves  in  their  two  furrows.  11.  And  Ephraim  is  as  an 
heifer  that  is  taught,  and  loveth  to  tread  out  the  corn  ;  but  I  passed  over  upon  her 
fair  neck  :  I  will  make  Ephraim  to  ride ;  Judah  shall  plow,  and  Jacob  shall  break 
his  clods.  12.  Sow  to  yourselves  in  righteousness,  reap  in  mercy  ;  break  up  your 
fallow  ground  :  for  it  is  time  to  seek  the  Lord,  till  He  come  and  rain  righteousness 
upon  you.  13.  Ye  have  plowed  wickedness,  ye  have  reaped  iniquity;  ye  have 
eaten  the  fruit  of  lies :  because  thou  didst  trust  in  thy  way,  in  the  multitude  of  thy 
mighty  men.  -14.  Therefore  shall  a  tumult  arise  among  thy  people,  and  all  thy 
fortresses  shall  be  spoiled,  as  Shalman  spoiled  Beth-arbel  in  the  day  of  battle  :  the 
mother  was  dashed  in  pieces  upon  her  children.  15.  So  shall  Beth-el  do  unto  you 
because  of  your  great  wickedness :  in  a  morning  shall  the  king  of  Israel  utterly  be 

cut  off.'— HOSEA  X.  1-15. 

The  prophecy  of  this  chapter  has  two  themes — Israel's 
sin,  and  its  punishment.  These  recur  again  and  again. 
Reiteration,  not  progress  of  thought,  characterises 
Hosea's  fiery  stream  of  inspired  eloquence.  Conviction 
of  sin  and  prediction  of  judgment  are  his  message.  We 
trace  a  fourfold  repetition  of  it  here,  and  further  note 
that  in  each  case  there  is  a  double  reference  to  Israel's 
sin  as  consisting  in  the  rebellion  which  set  up  a  king 
and  in  the  schism  which  established  the  calf  worship ; 
while  there  is  also  a  double  phase  of  the  punishment 
corresponding  to  these,  in  the  annihilation  of  the  king- 
dom and  the  destruction  of  the  idols. 
The  first  section  may  be  taken  to  be  verses  1-3.    The 

U4 


vs.  1-15]  *  FRUIT  WHICH  IS  DEATH*        115 

image  of  a  luxuriant  vine  laden  with  fruit  is  as  old  as 
Jacob's  blessing  of  the  tribes  (Gen.  xlix.  22),  vs^here  it  is 
applied  to  Joseph,  whose  descendants  were  the  strength 
of  the  Northern  Kingdom.  Hosea  has  already  used  it, 
and  here  it  is  employed  to  set  forth  picturesquely  the 
material  prosperity  of  Israel.  Probably  the  period 
referred  to  is  the  successful  reign  of  Jeroboam  ii.  But 
prosperity  increased  sin.  The  more  fruit  or  material 
wealth,  the  more  altars;  the  better  the  harvests,  the 
more  the  obelisks  or  pillars  to  gods,  falsely  supposed 
to  be  the  authors  of  the  blessings.  The  words  are  as 
condensed  as  a  proverb,  and  are  as  true  to-day  as  ever. 
Israel  had  attributed  its  prosperity  to  Baal  (Hosea  ii.  8). 
The  misuse  of  worldly  wealth  and  the  tendency  of  suc- 
cess to  draw  us  away  from  God,  and  to  blind  to  the  true 
source  of  all  blessing,  are  as  rife  now  as  then. 

The  root  of  the  evil  was,  as  always,  a  heart  divided 
— that  is,  between  God  and  Baal — or,  perhaps,  'smooth'; 
that  is,  dissimulating  and  insincere.  In  reality,  Baal 
alone  possesses  the  heart  which  its  owner  would  share 
between  him  and  Jehovah.  '  All  in  all,  or  not  at  all,'  is 
the  law.  Whether  Baals  or  calves  were  set  beside  God, 
He  was  equally  deposed. 

Then,  with  a  swift  turn,  Hosea  proclaims  the  impend- 
ing judgment,  setting  himself  and  the  people  as  if 
already  in  the  future.  He  hears  the  first  peal  of  the 
storm,  and  echoes  it  in  that  abrupt  *  now.'  The  first 
burst  of  the  judgment  shatters  dreams  of  innocence, 
and  the  cowering  wretches  see  their  sin  by  the  lurid 
light.  That  discovery  awaits  every  man  whose  heart 
has  been  '  divided.'  To  the  gazers  and  to  himself  masks 
drop,  and  the  true  character  stands  out  with  appalling 
clearness.  What  will  that  light  show  us  to  be?  An 
unnamed  hand  overthrows  altars  and  pillars.    No  need 


116  ROSEA  [OH.X. 

to  say  whose  it  is.  One  half  of  Israel's  sin  is  crushed 
at  a  blow,  and  the  destruction  of  the  other  follows 
immediately. 

They  themselves  abjure  their  allegiance;  for  they 
have  found  out  that  their  king  is  a  king  Log,  and  can 
do  them  no  good.  A  king,  set  up  in  opposition  to  God's 
will,  cannot  save.  The  ruin  of  their  projects  teaches 
godless  men  at  last  that  they  have  been  fools  to  take 
their  own  way;  for  all  defences,  recourses,  and  pro- 
tectors, chosen  in  defiance  of  God,  prove  powerless 
when  the  strain  comes.  The  annihilation  of  one  half 
of  their  sin  sickens  them  of  the  other.  The  calves  and 
the  monarchy  stood  or  fell  together.  It  is  a  dismal 
thing  to  have  to  bear  the  brunt  of  chastisement  for 
what  we  see  to  have  been  a  blunder  as  well  as  a  crime. 
But  such  is  the  fate  of  those  who  seek  other  gods  and 
another  king. 

In  verse  4  Hosea  recurs  to  Israel's  crime,  and  appends 
a  description  of  the  chastisement,  substantially  the 
same  as  before,  but  more  detailed,  which  continues  till 
verse  8.  The  sin  now  is  contemplated  in  its  effects  on 
human  relations.  Before,  it  was  regarded  in  relation 
to  God.  But  men  who  are  wrong  with  Him  cannot  be 
right  with  one  another.  Morality  is  rooted  in  religion, 
and  if  we  lie  to  God,  we  shall  not  be  true  to  our  brother. 
Hence,  passing  over  all  other  sins  for  the  present, 
Hosea  fixes  upon  one,  the  prevalence  of  which  strikes 
at  the  very  foundation  of  society.  What  can  be 
done  with  a  community  in  which  lying  has  become 
a  national  characteristic,  and  that  even  in  formal 
agreements  ?  Honey-combed  with  falsehood,  it  is  only 
fit  for  burning. 

Sin  is  bound  by  an  iron  link  to  penalty.  Therefore, 
says  Hosea,  God's  judgment  springs  up,  like  a  bitter 


vs.  1-15]  *  FRUIT  WHICH  IS  DEATH*        117 

plant  (the  precise  name  of  which  is  unknown)  in  the 
furrows,  where  the  farmer  did  not  know  that  its  seeds 
lay.  They  little  dreamed  what  they  were  sowing  when 
they  scattered  abroad  their  lies,  but  this  is  the  fruit 
of  these.  'Whatsoever  a  man  soweth,  that  shall  he  also 
reap ' ;  and  whatever  other  crop  we  may  hope  to  gather 
from  our  sins,  we  shall  gather  that  bitter  one  which 
we  did  not  expect.  The  inevitable  connection  of  sin 
and  judgment,  the  bitterness  of  its  results,  the  unex- 
pectedness of  them,  are  all  here,  and  to  be  laid  to  heart 
by  us. 

Then  verses  5  and  6  dilate  with  keen  irony  on  the 
fate  of  the  first  half  of  Israel's  sin — the  calf.  It  was 
thought  a  god,  but  its  worshippers  shall  be  in  a  fright 
for  it.  *  Calves,'  says  Hosea,  though  there  was  but  one 
at  Beth-el;  and  he  uses  the  feminine,  as  some  think, 
depreciatingly.  '  Beth-aven '  or  the  *  house  of  vanity,' 
he  says,  instead  of  Beth-el,  '  the  house  of  God.'  A  fine 
god  whose  worshippers  had  to  be  alarmed  for  its  safety ! 
'  Its  people ' — what  a  contrast  to  the  name  they  might 
have  borne,  '  My  people ' !  God  disowns  them,  and  says, 
*  They  belong  to  it,  not  to  Me.'  The  idolatrous  priests 
of  the  calf  worship  will  tremble  when  that  image, 
which  had  been  shamefully  their  '  glory,'  is  carried  off 
to  Assyria,  and  given  as  a  present  to  '  king  Jareb ' — a 
name  for  the  king  of  Assyria  meaning  the  fighting  or 
quarrelsome  king.  The  captivity  of  the  god  is  the 
shame  of  the  worshippers.  To  be  '  ashamed  of  their 
own  counsel '  is  the  certain  fate  of  all  who  depart  from 
God ;  for,  sooner  or  later,  experience  will  demonstrate 
to  the  blindest  that  their  refuges  of  lies  can  neither 
save  themselves  nor  those  who  trust  in  them.  But 
shame  is  one  thing  and  repentance  another ;  and  many 
a  man  will  say, '  I  have  been  a  great  fool,  and  my  clever 


118  HOSEA  [CH.X. 

policy  has  all  crumbled  to  pieces,'  who  will  only  there- 
fore change  his  idols,  and  not  return  to  God. 

Verse  7  recurs  to  the  political  punishment  of  the  civil 
rebellion.  The  image  for  the  disappearance  of  the  king 
is  striking,  whether  we  render  '  foam '  or  '  chip,'  but  the 
former  has  special  beauty.  In  the  one  case  we  see  the 
unsubstantial  bubble, 

*  A  moment  white,  then  melts  for  ever ' ; 

and  in  the  other,  the  helpless  twig  swept  down  by  the 
stream.  Either  brings  vividly  before  us  the  powerless- 
ness  of  Israel  against  the  roaring  torrent  of  Assyrian 
power;  and  the  figure  may  be  widened  out  to  teach 
what  is  sure  to  become  of  all  man-made  and  self-chosen 
refuges  when  the  floods  of  God's  judgments  sweep  over 
the  world.  The  captivity  of  the  idol  and  the  burst 
bubble  of  the  monarchy  bid  us  all  make  Jehovah  our 
God  and  King.  The  vacant  shrine  and  empty  throne 
are  followed  by  utter  and  long-continued  desolation. 
Thorns  and  thistles  have  time  to  grow  on  the  altars, 
and  no  hand  cuts  them  down.  What  of  the  men  thus 
stripped  of  all  in  which  they  had  trusted  ?  Desperate, 
they  implore  the  mountains  to  fall  on  them,  as  prefer- 
ring to  die,  and  the  hills  to  cover  them,  as  willing  to  be 
crushed,  if  only  they  may  be  hidden.  That  awful  cry 
is  heard  again  in  our  Lord's  predictions  of  judgment, 
and  in  the  Apocalypse.  Therefore  this  prophecy  fore- 
shadows, in  the  destruction  of  Israel's  confidences  and 
in  their  shame  and  despair,  a  more  dreadful  coming 
day,  in  which  we  shall  be  concerned. 

Verses  9  to  11  again  give  the  sin  and  its  punishment. 
•  The  days  of  Gibeah '  recall  the  hideous  story  of  lust 
and  crime  which  was  the  low-water  mark  of  the  law- 
less days  of  old.     That  crime  had  been  avenged  by 


vs.  1-16]  *  FRUIT  WHICH  IS  DEATH'        119 

merciless  war.  But  its  taint  had  lived  on,  and  the 
Israel  of  Hosea's  day  •  stood,'  obstinately  persistent, 
just  where  the  Benjamites  had  been  then,  and  set 
themselves  in  dogged  resistance,  as  these  had  done, 
'  that  the  battle  against  the  children  of  unrighteous- 
ness might  not  touch  them.' 

Stiff-necked  setting  oneself  against  God's  merciful 
fighting  with  evil  lasts  for  a  little  while,  but  verse  10 
tells  how  soon  and  easily  it  is  annihilated.  God's  *  desire ' 
brushes  away  all  defences,  and  the  obstinate  sinners 
are  like  children,  who  are  whipped  when  their  father 
wills,  let  them  struggle  as  they  may.  The  instruments 
of  chastisement  are  foreign  armies,  and  the  chastise- 
ment itself  is  described  with  a  striking  figure  as  '  bind- 
ing them  to  their  two  transgressions';  that  is,  the 
double  sin  which  is  the  keynote  of  the  chapter. 
Punishment  is  yoking  men  to  their  sins,  and  making 
them  drag  the  burden  like  bullocks  in  harness.  What 
sort  of  load  are  we  getting  together  for  ourselves? 
When  we  have  to  drag  the  consequences  of  our  doings 
behind  us,  how  shall  we  feel  ? 

The  figure  sets  the  Prophet's  imagination  going,  and 
he  turns  it  another  way,  comparing  Israel  to  a  heifer, 
broken  in,  and  liking  the  easy  work  of  threshing,  in 
which  the  unmuzzled  ox  could  eat  its  fill,  but  now  set 
to  harder  tasks  in  the  fields.  Judah,  too,  is  to  share  in 
the  punishment.  If  men  will  not  serve  God  in  and 
because  of  prosperous  ease.  He  will  try  what  toil  and 
privation  will  do.  Abused  blessings  are  withdrawn, 
and  the  abundance  of  the  threshing-floor  is  changed 
for  dragging  a  heavy  plough  or  harrow. 

Verse  12  still  deals  with  the  figure  suggested  in  the 
close  of  the  previous  verse.  It  is  the  only  break  in  the 
clouds  in  this  chapter.     It  is  a  call  to  amendment, 


120  HOSEA  [CH.  X. 

accompanied  by  a  promise  of  acceptance.  If  we  *  sow 
for  righteousness' — that  is,  if  our  efforts  are  directed 
to  embodying  it  in  our  lives — we  '  shall  reap  according 
to  mercy.'  That  is  true  universally,  whether  it  is  taken 
to  mean  God's  mercy  to  us,  or  ours  to  others.  The  aim 
after  righteousness  ever  secures  the  divine  favour,  and 
usually  ensures  the  measure  which  we  mete  being 
measured  to  us  again. 

But  sowing  is  not  all ;  thorns  must  be  grubbed  up. 
We  must  not  only  turn  over  a  new  leaf,  but  tear  out 
the  old  one.  The  old  man  must  be  slain  if  the  new 
man  is  to  live.  The  call  to  amend  finds  its  warrant  in 
the  assurance  that  there  is  still  time  to  seek  the  Lord, 
and  that,  for  all  His  threatenings.  He  is  ready  to  rain 
blessings  upon  the  seekers.  The  unwearying  patience 
of  God,  the  possibility  of  the  worst  sinner's  repentance, 
the  conditional  nature  of  the  threatenings,  the  possi- 
bility of  breaking  the  bond  between  sin  and  sorrow, 
the  yet  deeper  thought  that  righteousness  must  come 
from  above,  are  all  condensed  in  this  brief  gospel  before 
the  Gospel. 

But  that  bright  gleam  passes,  and  the  old  theme 
recurs.  Once  more  we  have  sin  and  punishment  ex- 
hibited in  their  organic  connection  in  verses  13  and 
14.  Israel's  past  had  been  just  the  opposite  of  sow- 
ing righteousness  and  reaping  mercy.  Wickedness 
ploughed  in,  iniquity  will  surely  be  its  fruit.  Sin 
begets  sin,  and  is  its  own  punishment.  What  fruit 
have  we  of  doing  wrong  ?  '  Lies ' ;  that  is,  unfulfilled 
expectations  of  unrealised  satisfaction.  No  man  gets 
the  good  that  he  aimed  at  in  sinning,  or  he  gets  some- 
thing more  that  spoils  it.  At  last  the  deceitfulness  of 
sin  will  be  found  out,  but  we  may  be  sure  of  it  now. 
The  root  of  all  Israel's  sin  was  the  root  of  ours ;  namely, 


vs.  1-15]  'FRUIT  WHICH  IS  DEATH'        121 

trust  in  self,  and  consequent  neglect  of  God.  The  first 
half  of  verse  13  is  an  exhaustive  analysis  of  the  ex- 
perience of  every  sinful  life ;  the  second,  a  penetrating 
disclosure  of  the  foundation  of  it. 

Then  the  whole  closes  with  the  repeated  threatening, 
dual  as  before,  and  illustrated  by  the  forgotten  horrors 
of  some  dreadful  siege,  one  of  the  '  unhappy,  far-off 
things,'  fallen  silent  now.  A  significant  variation 
occurs  in  the  final  threatening,  in  which  Beth-el  is  set 
forth  as  the  cause,  rather  than  as  the  object,  of  the 
destruction.  '  They  were  the  ruin  of  him  and  of  all 
Israel.'  Our  vices  are  made  the  whips  to  scourge  us. 
Our  idols  bring  us  no  help,  but  are  the  causes  of  our 
misery. 

The  Prophet  ends  with  the  same  double  reference 
which  prevails  throughout,  when  he  once  more  declares 
the  annihilation  of  the  monarchy,  which,  rather  than  a 
particular  person,  is  meant  by  *  the  king.'  •  In  the 
morning '  is  enigmatical.  It  may  mean  '  prematurely,' 
or  '  suddenly,'  or  '  in  a  time  of  apparent  prosperity,'  or, 
more  probably,  the  Prophet  stands  in  vision  in  that 
future  day  of  the  Lord,  and  points  to  '  the  king '  as  the 
first  victim.  The  force  of  the  prophecy  does  not  depend 
on  the  meaning  of  this  detail.  The  teaching  of  the 
whole  is  the  certainty  that  suffering  dogs  sin,  but  yet 
does  so  by  no  iron,  impersonal  law,  but  according  to 
the  will  of  God,  who  will  rain  righteousness  even  on 
the  sinner,  being  penitent,  and  will  endow  with 
righteousness  from,  above  every  lowly  soul  that  seeks 
for  it. 


DESTRUCTION  AND  HELP 

'  0  Israel,  thou  hast  destroyed  thyself ;  but  in  Me  is  thine  help.'— Hosea  xiii.  9 
(A.V.). 

'It  is  thy  destruction,  O  Israel,  that  thou  art  against  Me,  against  thy  Help' 
(R.V.). 

These  words  are  obscure  by  reason  of  their  brevity. 
Literally  they  might  be  rendered,  '  Thy  destruction  for, 
in,  or  against  Me ;  in,  or  against  thy  Help,'  Obviously, 
some  words  must  be  supplied  to  bring  out  any  sense. 
Our  Authorised  Version  has  chosen  the  supplement '  is,' 
which  fails  to  observe  the  second  occurrence  with  '  thy 
Help'  of  the  preposition,  and  is  somewhat  lax  in 
rendering  the  '  for '  of  the  second  clause  by  the  neutral 
•but.'  It  is  probably  better  to  read,  as  the  Revised 
Version,  with  most  modern  interpreters,  *Thou  art 
against  "Me,  against  thy  Help,'  and  to  find  in  the  second 
clause  the  explanation,  or  analysis,  of  the  destruction 
announced  in  the  first.  So  we  have  here  the  wail  of 
the  parental  love  of  God  over  the  ruin  which  Israel 
has  brought  on  itself,  and  that  parental  love  is  setting 
forth  Israel's  true  condition,  in  the  hope  that  they 
may  discern  it.  Thus,  even  the  rebuke  holds  enclosed 
a  promise  and  a  hope.  Since  God  is  their  help,  to 
depart  from  Him  has  been  ruin,  and  the  return  to  Him 
will  be  life.  Hosea,  or  rather  the  Spirit  that  spake 
through  Hosea,  blended  wonderful  tenderness  with  un- 
flinching decision  in  rebuke,  and  unwavering  certainty 
in  foretelling  evil  with  unfaltering  hope  in  the  promise 
of  possible  blessing.  His  words  are  set  in  the  same 
key  as  the  still  more  wonderfully  tender  ones  that 
Jesus  uttered  as  He  looked  across  the  valley  from 
Olivet  to  the  gleaming  city  on   the  other  side,  and 

112 


V.  9]         DESTRUCTION  AND  HELP         123 

wailed,  *  O  Jerusalem,  Jerusalem,  how  often  would  I 
have  gathered  thy  children  together,  as  a  hen  gathereth 
her  chickens  under  her  wings,  and  ye  would  not  I  There- 
fore your  house  is  left  unto  you  desolate.' 

We  may  note  here 

I.  The  loving  discovery  of  ruin. 

It  is  strange  that  men  should  need  to  be  told,  and 
that  with  all  emphasis,  the  evil  case  in  which  they  are ; 
and  stranger  still  that  they  should  resent  the  discovery 
and  reject  it.  This  pathetic  pleading  is  the  voice  of  a 
divine  Father  trying  to  convince  His  son  of  misery  and 
danger ;  and  the  obscurity  of  the  text  is  as  if  that  voice 
was  choked  with  sobs,  and  could  only  speak  in  broken 
syllables  the  tragical  word  in  which  all  the  evil  of 
Israel's  sin  is  gathered  up — 'his  destruction,'  or  'cor- 
ruption.' It  gathers  up  in  one  terrible  picture  the 
essential  nature  of  sin  and  the  death  of  the  soul, 
which  is  its  wages — inward  misery  and  unrest,  out- 
ward sorrows,  the  decay  of  mental  and  moral  powers, 
the  spreading  taint  which  eats  its  way  through  the 
whole  personality  of  a  man  who  has  sinned,  and  pauses 
not  till  it  has  reduced  his  corpse  to  putrefaction.  All 
these,  and  a  hundred  more  effects  of  sin,  are  crowded 
together  in  that  one  word  '  thy  destruction.' 

It  is  strange  that  it  needs  God's  voice,  and  that  in 
its  most  piercing  tones,  to  convince  men  of  ruin 
brought  by  sin.  A  mortifying  limb  is  painless.  There 
is  no  consciousness  in  the  drugged  sleep  which  becomes 
heavier  and  heavier  till  it  ends  in  death.  There  is  no 
surer  sign  of  the  reality  and  extent  of  the  corruption 
brought  about  by  sin,  than  man's  ignorance  of  it.  There 
is  no  more  tragical  proof  that  a  man  is  '  wretched,  and 
miserable,  and  blind,  and  naked'  than  his  vehement 
affirmation,  'I  am  rich,  and  have  gotten  riches,  and 


124  ROSEA  [0H.xm. 

have  need  of  nothing,'  and  his  self-complacent  rejec- 
tion of  the  counsel  to  'buy  refined  gold,  and  white 
garments,  and  eye-salve  to  anoint  his  eyes.'  So 
obstinately  unconscious  are  we  of  our  ruin  that  even 
God's  voice,  whether  uttered  in  definite  words,  or 
speaking  in  sharp  sorrows  and  punitive  acts,  but  too 
often  fails  to  pierce  the  thick  layer  of  self- complacency 
in  which  we  wrap  ourselves,  and  to  pierce  the  heart 
with  the  arrow  of  conviction.  Indeed  we  may  say 
that  the  whole  process  of  divine  education  of  a  soul, 
conducted  through  many  channels  of  providences,  has 
for  its  end  mainly  this — to  convince  His  wandering 
children  that  to  be  against  Him,  against  their  Help,  is 
their  destruction. 

But,  perhaps,  the  strangest  of  all  is  the  attitude 
which  we  often  take  up  of  resenting  the  love  that  would 
reveal  our  ruin.  It  is  stupid  of  the  ox  to  kick  against 
its  driver's  goad ;  but  that  is  wise  in  comparison  with 
the  action  of  the  man  who  is  angry  with  God  because 
He  warns  that  departure  from  Him  is  ruin.  Many  of  us 
treat  Christianity  as  if  it  had  made  the  mischief  which 
it  reveals,  and  would  fain  mend ;  and  we  all  need  to  be 
reminded  that  it  is  cruel  kindness  to  conceal  unpleasant 
truths,  and  that  the  Gospel  is  no  more  to  be  blamed 
for  the  destruction  which  it  declares  than  is  the  signal- 
man with  his  red  flag  responsible  for  the  broken-down 
viaduct  to  which  the  train  is  rushing  that  he  tries  to 
save. 

II.  The  loving  appeal  to  conscience  as  to  the  cause. 

Israel's  destruction  arose  from  the  fact  of  Israel  having 
turned  against  God,  its  Help.  Sin  is  suicide.  God  is 
our  Help,  and  only  Help.  His  will  is  love  and  blessing. 
His  only  relation  to  our  sin  is  to  hate  it,  and  fight 
against  it.     In  conflict  of  love  with  lovelessness  one 


V.9]         DESTRUCTION  AND  HELP         125 

of  His  chiefest  weapons  is  to  drive  home  to  our  con- 
sciousness the  conviction  of  our  sin.  When  He  is 
driven  to  punish,  it  is  our  wrongdoing  that  forces  Him 
to  what  Isaiah  calls,  'His  strange  act.'  The  Heavenly- 
Father  is  impelled  by  His  love  not  to  spare  the  rod, 
lest  the  sparing  spoil  the  child.  An  earthly  father 
suffers  more  punishment  than  he  inflicts  upon  the 
little  rebel  whom,  unwillingly  and  with  tears,  he  may 
chastise ;  and  God's  love  is  more  tender,  as  it  is  more 
wise,  than  that  of  the  fathers  of  our  flesh  who  corrected 
us.  '  He  doth  not  willingly  afflict  nor  is  soon  angry ' ; 
and  of  all  the  mercies  which  He  bestows  upon  us,  none 
is  more  laden  with  His  love  than  the  discipline  by 
which  He  would  make  us  know,  through  our  painful 
experience,  that  it  is  '  an  evil  and  bitter  thing  to  for- 
sake the  Lord,  and  that  His  fear  is  not  in  us.'  In  its 
essence  and  depth,  separation  from  God  is  death  to  the 
creature  that  wrenches  itself  away  from  the  source  of 
life ;  and  all  the  weariness  and  pains  of  a  godless  life 
are,  if  we  take  them  as  He  meant  them,  the  very 
angels  of  His  presence. 

Just  as  the  sole  reason  for  our  sorrows  lies  in  our 
wrongdoing,  the  sole  cause  of  our  wrongdoing  is  in 
ourselves.  It  is  because  'Israel  is  against  Me'  that 
Israel's  destruction  rushes  down  upon  it.  It  could 
have  defended  its  hankering  after  Assyria  and  idols, 
by  wise  talk  about  political  exigencies  and  the  wisdom 
of  trying  to  turn  possibly  powerful  enemies  into 
powerful  allies,  and  the  folly  of  a  little  nation,  on  a 
narrow  strip  of  territory  between  the  desert  and  the 
sea,  fancying  itself  able  to  sustain  itself  uncrushed  be- 
tween the  upper  millstone  of  Assyria  on  the  north, 
and  the  under  one,  Egypt,  on  the  south.  But  circum- 
stances are  never  the  cause,  though  they  may  afford 


126  HOSEA  [CH.  XIII. 

the  excuse  of  rebellion  against  our  Helper,  God;  and 
all  the  modern  talk  about  environments  and  the  like, 
is  merely  a  cloak  cast  round,  but  too  scanty  to  conceal 
the  ugly  fact  of  the  alienated  will.  All  the  excuses  for 
sin,  which  either  modern  scientific  jargon  about  'laws,' 
or  hyper-Calvinistic  talk  about  *  divine  decrees,'  alleges, 
are  alike  shattered  against  the  plain  fact  of  conscience, 
which  proclaims  to  every  evil-doer,  'Thou  art  the 
man ! '  We  shall  get  no  further  and  no  deeper  than 
the  truth  of  our  text :  '  It  is  thy  destruction  that  thou 
art  against  Me.' 

The  pleading  God  has  from  the  beginning  spoken 
words  as  tender  as  they  are  stern,  and  as  stern  as  they 
are  tender.  His  voice  to  the  sons  of  men  has  from  of 
old  asked  the  unanswerable  question,  '  Why  should  ye 
be  stricken  any  more  ?  *  and  has  answered  it,  so  far  as 
answer  is  possible,  by  the  fact,  which  is  as  mysterious 
as  it  is  undeniable,  'Ye  will  revolt  more  and  more.' 
God  calls"  upon  man  to  judge  between  Him  and  His 
vineyard,  and  asks,  'What  could  have  been  done  more 
to  My  vineyard  that  I  have  not  done  unto  it  ?  Where- 
fore, when  I  looked  that  it  should  bring  forth  grapes, 
brought  it  forth  wild  grapes  ? '  The  fault  lay  not  in  the 
vine-dresser,  but  in  some  evil  influence  that  had  found 
its  way  into  the  life  and  sap  of  the  vine,  and  bore  fruits 
in  an  unnatural  product,  which  could  not  have  been 
traced  to  the  vine-dresser's  action.  So  God  stands,  as 
with  clean  hands,  declaring  that  '  He  is  pure  from  the 
blood  of  all  men ;  that  He  has  no  pleasure  in  the  death 
of  the  wicked';  and  His  word  to  the  men  on  whom 
falls  the  whole  weight  of  His  destroying  power  is, 
'Thou  hast  procured  this  unto  thyself.' 

III.  The  loving  forbearance  which  still  offers 
restoration. 


V.9]  ISRAEL  RETURNING  127 

He  still  claims  to  be  Israel's  Help.  Separation  from 
Him  has  all  but  destroyed  the  rebellious;  but  it  has 
not  in  the  smallest  degree  afiFected  the  fulness  of  His 
power,  nor  the  fervency  of  His  desire  to  help.  How- 
ever earth  may  be  shaken  by  storms,  or  swathed  in 
mist  that  darkens  all  things  and  shuts  out  heaven,  the 
sun  is  still  in  its  tabernacle  and  pouring  down  its  rays 
through  the  cloudless  blue  that  is  above  the  enfolding 
cloud.  Our  text  has  wrapped  up  in  it  the  broad  gospel 
that  all  our  self-inflicted  destruction  may  be  arrested, 
and  all  the  evil  which  brought  it  about  swept  away.  God 
is  ready  to  prove  Himself  our  true  and  only  Helper  in 
that,  as  our  prophet  says,  *  He  will  ransom  us  from  the 
power  of  the  grave ' ;  and,  even  when  death  has  laid 
its  cold  hand  upon  us,  will  redeem  us  from  it,  and 
destroy  the  destruction  which  had  fixed  its  talons  in 
us.  All  the  guilt  is  ours ;  all  the  help  is  His  ;  His  work 
is  to  conquer  and  cast  out  our  sins,  to  heal  our  sick- 
nesses, to  soothe  our  sorrows.  And  He  has  Himself 
vindicated  His  great  name  of  our  Help  when  He  has 
revealed  Himself  as  '  the  God  and  Father  of  our  Lord 
and  Saviour  Jesus  Christ.' 


ISRAEL  RETURNING 

'  O  lerael,  rettirn  unto  the  Lord  thy  God  ;  for  thou  hast  fallen  by  thine  iniquity. 

2.  Take  with  you  words,  and  turn  to  the  Lord :  say  unto  Him,  Take  away  all 
iniquity,  and  receive  us  graciously:  so  will  we  render  the  calves  of  our  lips. 

3.  Asshur  shall  not  save  us ;  we  will  not  ride  upon  horses :  neither  will  we  say  any 
more  to  the  work  of  our  hands,  Ye  are  our  gods :  for  in  thee  the  fatherless  flndeth 
mercy.  L  I  will  heal  their  backsliding,  I  will  love  them  freely :  for  mine  anger  is 
turned  away  from  Him.  5.  I  will  be  as  the  dew  unto  Israel :  He  shall  grow  as  tho 
lUy,  and  cast  forth  His  roots  as  Lebanon.  6.  His  branches  shall  spread,  and  His 
beauty  shall  be  as  the  olive-tree,  and  His  smell  as  Lebanon.  7.  They  that  dwell 
under  His  shadow  shall  return ;  they  shall  revive  as  the  corn,  and  grow  as  the 
vine :  the  scent  thereof  shall  be  as  the  wine  of  Lebanon.  8.  Ephraim  shall  say. 
What  have  I  to  do  any  more  with  idols?    I  have  heard  Him,  and  observed  Him : 


128  HOSE  A  [CH.XIV. 

I  am  like  a  grreen  flr-tree.  From  me  is  thy  fmit  found.  9.  Who  is  wise,  and  He 
ehall  understand  these  things  ?  prudent,  and  He  shall  know  them  ?  for  the  ways  of 
the  Lord  are  right,  and  the  just  shall  walk  in  them:  but  the  transgressors  shall 
fall  therein.'— HosKA  xiv.  1-9. 

HosEA  is  eminently  the  prophet  of  divine  love  and  of 
human  repentance.  Both  streams  of  thought  are  at 
their  fullest  in  this  great  chapter.  In  verses  1  to  3  the 
very  essence  of  true  return  to  God  is  set  forth  in  the 
prayer  which  Israel  is  exhorted  to  offer,  while  in  verses 
4  to  8  the  forgiving  love  of  God  and  its  blessed  results 
are  portrayed  with  equal  poetical  beauty  and  spiritual 
force.  Verse  9  closes  the  chapter  and  the  book  with  a 
kind  of  epilogue. 

I.  The  summons  to  repentance. 

'  Israel,'  of  course,  here  means  the  Northern  Kingdom, 
with  which  Hosea's  prophecies  are  chiefly  occupied. 
'  Thou  hast  fallen  by  thine  iniquity ' — that  is  the  lesson 
taught  by  all  its  history,  and  in  a  deeper  sense  it  is 
the  lesson  of  all  experience.  Sin  brings  ruin  for  nations 
and  individuals,  and  the  plain  teachings  of  each  man's 
own  life  exhort  each  to  'return  unto  the  Lord.'  We 
have  all  proved  the  vanity  and  misery  of  departing 
from  Him;  surely,  if  we  are  not  drawn  by  His  love, 
we  might  be  driven  by  our  own  unrest,  to  go  back 
to  God. 

The  Prophet  anticipates  the  clear  accents  of  the 
New  Testament  call  to  repentance  in  his  expansion  of 
what  he  meant  by  returning.  He  has  nothing  to  say 
about  sacrifices,  nor  about  self-reliant  efforts  at  moral 
improvement.  '  Take  with  you  words,'  not  '  the  blood 
of  bulls  and  goats.'  Confession  is  better  than  sacrifice. 
What  words  are  they  which  will  avail  ?  Hosea  teaches 
the  penitent's  prayer.  It  must  begin  with  the  petition 
for  forgiveness,  which  implies  recognition  of  the  peti- 
tioner's sin.    The  cry, '  Take  away  all  iniquity,'  does  not 


vs.  1-9]  ISRAEL  RETURNING  129 

specify  sins,  but  masses  the  whole  black  catalogue  into 
one  word.  However  varied  the  forms  of  our  transgres- 
sions, they  are  in  principle  one,  and  it  is  best  to  bind 
them  all  into  one  ugly  heap,  and  lay  it  at  God's  feet. 
We  have  to  confess  not  only  sins,  but  sin,  and  the 
taking  away  of  it  includes  divine  cleansing  from  its 
power,  as  well  as  divine  forgiveness  of  its  guilt.  Hosea 
bids  Israel  ask  that  God  would  take  away  all  iniquity; 
John  pointed  to  '  the  Lamb  of  God,  which  taketh  away 
the  sin  of  the  world.'  But  beyond  forgiveness  and 
cleansing,  the  penitent  heart  will  seek  that  God  would 
*  accept  the  good '  in  it,  which  springs  up  by  His  grace, 
when  the  evil  has  been  washed  from  it,  like  flowers 
that  burst  from  soil  off  which  the  matted  under- 
growth of  poisonous  jungle  has  been  cleared.  Mere 
negative  absence  of  'evil'  is  not  all  that  we  should 
desire  or  exhibit;  there  must  be  positive  good;  and 
however  sinful  may  have  been  the  past,  we  are  not  too 
bold  when  we  ask  and  expect  that  we  may  be  made 
able  to  produce  *  good,'  which  shall  be  fragrant  as  sweet 
incense  to  God. 

Petitions  are  followed  by  vows.  On  the  one  hand, 
the  experience  of  forgiveness  and  cleansing  will  put 
a  new  song  in  our  mouths,  and  instead  of  animal 
sacrifices,  we  shall  render  the  praise  which  is  better 
than  '  calves '  laid  on  the  altar.  Perhaps  the  Septuagint 
rendering  of  that  difficult  phrase  'the  calves  of  our 
lips,'  which  is  given  in  Hebrews  xiii.  15,  't]ae  fruit  of 
our  lips,'  is  preferable.  In  either  case,  the  same 
thought  appears — that  the  penitent's  experience  of 
forgiving  and  restoring  love  makes  '  the  tongue  of  the 
dumb  sing,'  and  it  will  bind  men's  hearts  more  closely 
to  God  than  anything  besides  can  do,  so  that  their  old 
inclinations  to  false  reliances  and  idolatries  drop  away 

I 


180  HOSEA  [OH.  XIV. 

from  them.  The  old  fable  tells  us  that  the  storm  made 
the  traveller  wrap  his  cloak  closer  round  him,  but  the 
sunshine  made  him  throw  it  o£P.  Judgments  often 
make  men  cling  more  closely  to  their  sins,  but  forgiving 
mercy  makes  them  'cast  off  the  works  of  darkness.' 
The  men  who  had  experienced  that  in  God,  the  Israel, 
which  by  its  sins  had  brought  down  the  punishment 
of  His  repudiation  of  being  its  father  (i.  9),  had  found 
mercy,  would  no  longer  feel  temptation  to  turn  to 
Assyria  for  help,  nor  to  seek  protection  from  Egypt's 
cavalry,  nor  to  debase  their  manhood  by  calling  stocks 
and  stones,  the  work  of  their  own  hands,  their  gods. 
What  earthly  sweetness  will  tempt,  or  what  earthly 
danger  will  affright,  tho  heart  that  is  feeling  the  bliss 
of  union  with  God?  Would  Judas's  thirty  pieces  of 
silver  attract  the  disciple  reclining  on  Jesus'  bosom? 
We  are  most  firmly  bound  to  God,  not  by  our  resolves, 
but  by  our  experience  of  His  all-sufficient  mercy.  Fill 
the  heart  with  that  wine  of  the  kingdom,  and  bitter 
or  poisonous  draughts  will  find  no  entrance  into 
the  cup. 

II.  God's  welcoming  answer. 

The  very  abruptness  of  its  introduction,  without  any 
explanation  as  to  the  speaker,  suggests  how  swiftly 
and  joyfully  the  Father  hastens  to  meet  the  returning 
prodigal  while  he  is  yet  afar  off.  Like  pent-up  waters 
rushing  forth  as  soon  as  a  barrier  is  taken  away,  God's 
love  pours  itself  out  immediately.  His  answer  ever 
gives  more  than  the  penitent  asks — robe  and  ring  and 
shoes,  and  a  feast  to  him  who  dared  not  expect  more 
than  a  place  among  the  hired  servants.  He  gives  not 
by  drops,  but  in  floods,  answering  the  prayer  for  the 
taking  away  of  iniquity  by  the  promise  to  heal  back- 
sliding, going  beyond  desires  and  hopes  in  the  gift  of 


vs.  1-9]  ISRAEL  RETURNING  181 

love  which  asks  ior  no  recompense,  is  drawn  forth  by 
no  desert,  but  wells  up  from  the  depths  of  God's  heart, 
and  strengthens  the  new,  tremulous  trust  of  the  penitent 
by  the  assurance  that  every  trace  of  anger  is  effaced 
from  God's  heart. 

The  blessings  consequent  on  the  gift  of  God's  love 
are  described  in  lovely  imagery,  drawn,  like  Hosea's 
other  abundant  similes,  from  nature,  and  especially 
from  trees  and  flowers.  The  source  of  all  fruitfulness 
is  a  divine  influence,  which  comes  silently  and  refresh- 
ing as  the  '  dew,'  or,  rather,  as  the  *  night  mist,'  a 
phenomenon  occurring  in  Palestine  in  summer,  and 
being,  accurately,  rolling  masses  of  vapour  brought 
from  the  Mediterranean,  which  counteract  the  dry 
heat  and  keep  vegetation  alive.  The  influences  which 
refresh  and  fructify  our  souls  must  fall  in  many  a 
silent  hour  of  meditation  and  communion.  They  will 
efiloresce  into  manifold  shapes  of  beauty  and  fruitful- 
ness, of  which  the  Prophet  signalises  three.  The  lily 
may  stand  for  beauty  of  purity,  though  botanists  differ 
as  to  the  particular  flower  meant.  Christians  should 
present  to  the  world  'whatsoever  things  are  lovely,' 
and  see  to  it  that  their  goodness  is  attractive.  But  the 
fragrant,  pure  lily  has  but  shallow  roots,  and  beauty  is 
not  all  that  a  character  needs  in  this  world  of  struggle 
and  effort.  So  there  are  to  be  both  the  lily's  blossom 
and  roots  like  Lebanon.  The  image  may  refer  to  the 
firm  buttresses  of  the  widespread  foot-hills,  from  which 
the  sovereign  summits  of  the  great  mountain  range 
rise,  or,  as  is  rather  suggested  by  the  accompanying 
similes  from  the  vegetable  world,  it  may  refer  to  the 
cedars  growing  there.  Their  roots  are  anchored  deep 
and  stretch  far  underground;  therefore  they  rear 
towering  heads,  and  spread  broad    shelves    of    dark 


182  HOSEA  [OH.  XIV. 

foliage,  safe  from  any  blast.  Our  lives  must  be  deep 
rooted  in  God  if  they  are  to  be  strong.  Roots  generally 
spread  beneath  the  soil  about  as  far  as  branches  extend 
above  it.  There  should  be  at  least  as  much  under- 
ground, 'hid  with  Christ  in  God,'  as  is  visible  to  the 
world. 

But  beauty  and  strength  are  not  all.  So  Hosea 
thinks  of  yet  another  of  the  characteristic  growths  of 
Palestine,  the  olive,  which  is  not  strikingly  beautiful 
in  form,  with  its  strangely  gnarled,  contorted  stem,  its 
feeble  branches,  and  its  small,  pointed,  pale  leaves,  but 
has  the  beauty  of  fruitfulness,  and  is  green  when  other 
trees  are  bare.  Such  '  beauty '  should  be  ours,  and  will 
be  if  the  '  dew '  falls  on  us. 

In  verse  7  there  are  difficulties,  both  as  to  the 
application  of  the  'his,'  and  as  to  the  reading  and 
rendering  of  some  of  the  words.  But  the  general  drift 
is  clear.  •  It  prolongs  the  tones  of  the  foregoing  verses, 
keeping  to  the  same  class  of  images,  and  expressing 
fruitfulness,  abundant  as  the  corn  and  precious  as  the 
grape,  and  fragrance  like  the  '  bouquet '  of  the  choicest 
wine. 

Verse  8  offers  great  difficulties  on  any  interpretation. 
The  supplement  '  shall  say  *  is  questionable,  and  it  is 
doubtful  whether  Ephraim  is  the  speaker  at  all,  and 
whether,  if  so,  he  speaks  all  the  four  clauses,  and  who 
speaks  any  or  all  of  them,  if  not  he.  To  the  present 
writer,  it  seems  best  to  take  the  supplement  as  right, 
and  possible  to  regard  the  whole  verse  as  spoken  by 
Ephraim,  though  perhaps  the  last  clause  is  meant  to 
be  God's  utterance.  The  meaning  will  then  come  out 
as  follows.  The  penitent  Israel  again  speaks,  after  the 
gracious  promises  preceding.  The  tribal  name  is,  as 
usual  in  Hosea,  equivalent  to  Israel,  whose  penitent 


vs.  1-9]  ISRAEL  RETURNING  133 

cry  we  heard  at  the  beginning  of  the  passage.  Now  we 
hear  his  glad  response  to  God's  abundant  answer. 
'What  have  I  to  do  any  more  with  idols?'  He  had 
vowed  (verse  3)  to  have  no  more  to  do  with  them,  and 
the  resolve  is  deepened  by  the  rich  grace  held  forth  to 
him.  Hosea  had  lamented  Ephraim's  mad  adherence 
to  'his  idols'  (iv.  17),  but  now  the  union  is  dissolved, 
and  by  penitence  and  reception  of  God's  grace,  he 
is  joined  to  the  Lord,  and  parted  from  them.  His 
renunciation  of  idolatry  is  based,  in  the  second  clause, 
on  his  experience  of  what  God  can  do,  and  on  his 
having  heard  God's  gracious  voice  of  pardon  and 
promise.  If  a  man  hears  God,  he  will  not  be  drawn  to 
worship  at  any  idol's  shrine. 

Further,  in  the  third  clause,  Ephraim  is  joyfully 
conscious  of  the  change  that  has  passed  on  him,  in 
accordance  with  the  great  promises  just  spoken,  and 
with  grateful  astonishment  that  such  verdure  should 
have  burst  out  from  the  dry  and  rotten  stump  of  his 
own  sinful  nature,  exclaims, '  I  am  like  a  green  fir-tree.' 
That  is  another  reason  why  he  will  have  no  more  to 
do  with  idols.  They  could  never  have  made  his  sapless 
nature  break  into  leafage.  But  what  of  the  fourth 
clause — '  From  Me  is  thy  fruit  found '  ?  Can  we  under- 
stand that  to  mean  that  Ephraim  still  speaks,  keeping 
up  the  image  of  the  previous  clause,  and  declaring  that 
all  the  new  fruitfulness  which  he  finds  in  himself  he 
recognises  to  be  God's,  both  in  the  sense  that,  in  reality, 
it  is  produced  by  Him,  and  that  it  belongs  to  Him?  He 
comes  seeking  fruit,  and  He  finds  it.  All  our  good  is 
His,  and  we  shall  be  happy,  productive,  and  wise,  in 
proportion  as  we  offer  all  our  works  to  Him,  and  feel 
that,  after  all,  they  are  not  ours,  but  the  works  of  that 
Spirit  which  dwells  in  penitent  and  believing  hearts. 


134  HOSEA  [CH.  XIV. 

Some  have  thought  that  this  last  clause  must  be  taken 
as  spoken  by  God;  but,  even  if  so  taken,  it  conveys 
substantially  the  same  thought  as  to  the  divine  origin 
of  man's  f ruitf  ulness. 

The  last  verse  is  rather  a  general  reflection  summing 
up  the  whole  than  an  integral  part  of  this  wonderful 
representation  of  penitence,  pardon,  and  fruitfulness. 
It  declares  the  great  truth  that  the  knowledge  of  the 
pardoning  mercy  of  God,  and  of  the  ways  by  which  He 
weans  men  from  sin  and  makes  them  fruitful  of  good, 
makes  us  truly  wise.  That  knowledge  is  more  than 
intellectual  apprehension ;  it  is  experience.  Providence 
has  its  mysteries,  but  they  who  keep  near  to  God,  and 
are  'just'  because  they  do,  will  find  the  opportunity 
of  free,  unfettered  activity  in  God's  ways,  and  trans- 
gressors will  stumble  therein.  Therefore  wisdom  and 
safety  lie  in  penitence  and  confession,  which  will  ever 
be  met  by  gracious  pardon  and  showers  of  blessing  that 
will  cause  our  hearts,  which  sin  has  made  desert,  to 
rejoice  and  blossom  like  the  rose. 


THE  DEW  AND  THE  PLANTS 

*  I  will  be  as  the  dew  unto  Israel :  he  shall  grow  as  the  lily,  and  cast  forth  his 
roots  as  Lebanon.  6.  His  branches  shall  spread,  and  his  beauty  shall  be  as  the  olive- 
tree  .  .  .'— HosKA  xiv.  5,  6. 

Like  his  brethren,  Hosea  was  a  poet  as  well  as  a 
prophet.  His  little  prophecy  is  full  of  similes  and 
illustrations  drawn  from  natural  objects ;  scarcely  any 
of  them  from  cities  or  from  the  ways  of  men ;  almost 
all  of  them  from  Nature,  as  seen  in  the  open  country, 
which  he  evidently  loved,  and  where  he  had  looked 
upon  things  with  a  clear  and  meditative  eye.  This 
whole  chapter  is  fuU  of    emblems    drawn  from  the 


vs.  5, 6]  THE  DEW  AND  THE  PLANTS       135 

vegetable  world.  The  lily,  the  cedar,  the  olive,  are  in 
my  text.  And  there  follow,  in  the  subsequent  verses, 
the  corn,  and  the  vine,  and  the  green  fir-tree. 

The  words  which  I  have  read,  no  doubt  originally 
had  simply  a  reference  to  the  numerical  increase  of 
the  people  and  their  restoration  to  their  land,  but 
they  may  be  taken  by  us  quite  fairly  as  having  a  very 
much  deeper  and  more  blessed  reference  than  that. 
For  they  describe  the  uniform  condition  of  all  spiritual 
life  and  growth, '  I  will  be  as  the  dew  unto  Israel ' ;  and 
then  they  set  forth  some  of  the  manifold  aspects  of 
that  growth,  and  the  consequences  of  receiving  that 
heavenly  dew,  under  the  various  metaphors  to  which 
I  have  referred.  It  is  in  that  higher  signification  that 
I  wish  to  look  at  them  now. 

I.  The  first  thought  that  comes  out  of  the  words  is 
that  for  all  life  and  growth  of  the  spirit  there  must 
be  a  bedewing  from  God. 

*I  will  be  as  the  dew  unto  Israel.'  Now,  scholars 
tell  us  that  the  kind  of  moisture  that  is  meant  in  these 
words  is  not  what  we  call  dew,  of  which,  as  a  matter 
of  fact,  there  falls,  in  Palestine,  little  or  none  at  the 
season  of  the  year  referred  to  in  my  text,  but  that  the 
word  really  means  the  heavy  night-clouds  that  come 
upon  the  wings  of  the  south-west  wind,  to  diffuse 
moisture  and  freshness  over  the  parched  plains,  in  the 
very  height  and  fierceness  of  summer.  The  metaphor 
of  my  text  becomes  more  beautiful  and  striking,  if  we 
note  that,  in  the  previous  chapter,  where  the  Prophet 
was  in  his  threatening  mood,  he  predicts  that '  an  east 
wind  shall  come,  the  wind  of  the  Lord  shall  come  up 
from  the  wilderness' — the  burning  sirocco,  with  death 
upon  its  wings — '  and  his  spring  shall  become  dry,  and 
his  fountain  shall   be  dried  up.'     We  have  then  to 


136  HOSEA  [OH.  XIV. 

imagine  the  land  gaping  and  parched,  the  hot  air 
having,  as  with  invisible  tongue  of  flame,  licked 
streams  and  pools  dry,  and  having  shrunken  fountains 
and  springs.  Then,  all  at  once  there  comes  down  upon 
the  baking  ground  and  on  the  faded,  drooping  flowers 
that  lie  languid  and  prostrate  on  the  ground  in  the 
darkness,  borne  on  the  wings  of  the  wind,  from  the 
depths  of  the  great  unfathomed  sea,  an  unseen 
moisture.  You  cannot  call  it  rain,  so  gently  does 
it  diffuse  itself;  it  is  liker  a  mist,  but  it  brings  life 
and  freshness,  and  everything  is  changed.  The  dew, 
or  the  night  mist,  as  it  might  more  properly  be 
rendered,  was  evidently  a  good  deal  in  Hosea's  mind ; 
you  may  remember  that  he  uses  the  image  again  in  a 
remarkably  different  aspect,  where  he  speaks  of  men's 
goodness  as  being  like  '  a  morning  cloud,  and  the  early 
dew  that  passes  away.' 

The  natural  object  which  yields  the  emblem  was  all 
inadequate  to  set  forth  the  divine  gift  which  is  com- 
pared to  it,  because  as  soon  as  the  sun  has  risen,  with 
burning  heat,  it  scatters  the  beneficent  clouds,  and  the 
'  sunbeams  like  swords '  threaten  to  slay  the  tender 
green  shoots.  But  this  mist  from  God  that  comes 
down  to  water  the  earth  is  never  dried  up.  It  is  not 
transient.  It  may  be  ours,  and  live  in  our  hearts. 
Dear  brethren,  the  prose  of  this  sweet  old  promise  is 
*If  I  depart,  I  will  send  Him  unto  you.'  If  we  are 
Christian  people,  we  have  the  perpetual  dew  of  that 
divine  Spirit,  which  falls  on  our  leaves  and  penetrates 
to  our  roots,  and  communicates  life,  freshness,  and 
power,  and  makes  growth  possible — more  than  possible, 
certain — for  us.  •  I '—Myself  through  My  Son,  and  in 
My  Spirit — 'I  will  be'— an  unconditional  assurance — 
♦  as  the  dew  unto  Israel.' 


vfl.  5,  6]  THE  DEW  AND  THE  PLANTS       187 

Yes  !  That  promise  is  in  its  depth  and  fulness  appli- 
cable only  to  the  Christian  Israel,  and  it  remains  true 
to-day  and  for  ever.  Do  we  see  it  fulfilled  ?  One  looks 
round  upon  our  congregations,  and  into  one's  own  heart, 
and  we  behold  the  parable  of  Gideon's  fleece  acted  over 
again — some  places  soaked  with  the  refreshing  moisture, 
and  some  as  hard  as  a  rock  and  as  dry  as  tinder  and 
ready  to  catch  fire  from  any  spark  from  the  devil's 
forge  and  be  consumed  in  the  everlasting  burnings 
some  day.  It  will  do  us  good  to  ask  ourselves  why 
it  is  that,  with  a  promise  like  this  for  every  Christian 
soul  to  build  upon,  there  are  so  few  Christian  souls  that 
have  anything  like  realised  its  fulness  and  its  depth. 
Let  us  be  quite  sure  of  this — God  has  nothing  to  do 
with  the  failure  of  His  promise,  and  let  us  take  all 
the  blame  to  ourselves. 

'  I  will  be  as  the  dew  unto  Israel.'  Who  was  Israel  ? 
The  man  that  wrestled  all  night  in  prayer  with  God, 
and  took  hold  of  the  angel  and  prevailed  and  wept  and 
made  supplication  to  Him.  So  Hosea  tells  us ;  and  as 
he  says  in  the  passage  where  he  describes  the  Angel's 
wrestling  with  Jacob  at  Peniel,  *  there  He  spake  with 
us ' — when  He  spake.  He  spake  with  him  who  first  bore 
the  name.  Be  you  Israel,  and  God  will  surely  be  your 
dew;  and  life  and  growth  will  be  possible.  That  is  the 
first  lesson  of  this  great  promise. 

II.  The  second  is,  that  a  soul  thus  bedewed  by  God 
will  spring  into  purity  and  beauty. 

We  go  back  to  Hosea's  vegetable  metaphors.  'He 
shall  grow  as  the  lily '  is  his  first  promise.  If  I  were 
addressing  a  congregation  of  botanists,  I  should  have 
something  to  say  about  what  kind  of  a  plant  is 
meant,  but  that  is  quite  beside  the  mark  for  my 
present  purpose.    It  is  sufficient  to  notice  that  in  this 


138  HOSEA  [CH.  XIV. 

metaphor  the  emphasis  is  laid  upon  the  two  attri- 
butes which  I  have  named — beauty  and  purity.  The 
figure  teaches  us  that  ugly  Christianity  is  not  Christ's 
Christianity.  Some  of  us  older  people  remember  that 
it  used  to  be  a  favourite  phrase  to  describe  unattrac- 
tive saints  that  they  had  '  grace  grafted  on  a  crab  stick.' 
There  are  a  great  many  Christian  people  whom  one 
would  compare  to  any  other  plant  rather  than  a  lily. 
Thorns  and  thistles  and  briers  are  a  good  deal  more 
like  what  some  of  them  appear  to  the  world.  But  we 
are  bound,  if  we  are  Christian  people,  by  our  obligations 
to  God,  and  by  our  obligations  to  men,  to  try  to  make 
Christianity  look  as  beautiful  in  people's  eyes  as  we 
can.  That  is  what  Paul  said,  'Adorn  the  teaching'; 
make  it  look  well,  inasmuch  as  it  has  made  you  look 
attractive  to  men's  eyes.  Men  have  a  fairly  accurate 
notion  of  beauty  and  goodness,  whether  they  have  any 
goodness  or  any  beauty  in  their  own  characters  or  not. 
Do  you  remember  the  words:  'Whatsoever  things  are 
lovely,  whatsoever  things  are  of  good  report,  whatso- 
ever things  are  venerable  ...  if  there  be  any  praise ' — 
from  men — '  think  on  these  things '  ?  If  we  do  not  keep 
that  as  the  guiding  star  of  our  lives,  then  we  have 
failed  in  one  very  distinct  duty  of  Christian  people — 
namely,  to  grow  more  like  a  lily,  and  to  be  graceful  in 
the  lowest  sense  of  that  word,  as  well  as  grace  full  in 
the  highest  sense  of  it.  We  shall  not  be  so  in  the 
lower,  unless  we  are  so  in  the  higher.  It  may  be  a 
very  modest  kind  of  beauty,  very  humble,  and  not  at 
all  like  the  flaring  reds  and  yellows  of  the  gorgeous 
flowers  that  the  world  admires.  These  are  often  like 
a  great  sunflower,  with  a  disc  as  big  as  a  cheese.  But 
the  Christian  beauty  will  be  modest  and  unobtrusive 
and  shy,  like  the  violet  half  buried  in  the  hedge-bank, 


vs.  5, 6]  THE  DEW  AND  THE  PLANTS       139 

and  unnoticed  by  careless  eyes,  accustomed  to  see 
beauty  only  in  gaudy,  flaring  blooms.  But  unless 
you,  as  a  Christian,  are  in  your  character  arrayed  in 
the  'beauty  of  holiness,'  and  the  holiness  of  beauty, 
you  are  not  quite  the  Christian  that  Jesus  Christ  wants 
you  to  be  ;  setting  forth  all  the  gracious  and  sweet  and 
refining  influences  of  the  Gospel  in  your  daily  life  and 
conduct.    That  is  the  second  lesson  of  our  text. 

III.  The  third  is,  that  a  God-bedewed  soul  that  has 
been  made  fair  and  pure  by  communion  with  God, 
ought  also  to  be  strong. 

He  '  shall  cast  forth  his  roots  like  Lebanon.'  Now  I 
take  it  that  simile  does  not  refer  to  the  roots  of  that 
giant  range  that  slope  away  down  under  the  depths  of 
the  Mediterranean.  That  is  a  beautiful  emblem,  but  it 
is  not  in  line  with  the  other  images  in  the  context.  As 
these  are  all  dependent  on  the  promise  of  the  dew,  and 
represent  different  phases  of  the  results  of  its  fulfil- 
ment, it  is  natural  to  expect  thus  much  uniformity  in 
their  variety,  that  they  shall  all  be  drawn  from  plant- 
life.  If  so,  we  must  suppose  a  condensed  metaphor 
here,  and  take  'Lebanon'  to  mean  the  forest  which 
another  prophet  calls  '  the  glory  of  Lebanon.'  The 
characteristic  tree  in  these,  as  we  all  know,  was  the 
cedar. 

It  is  named  in  Hebrew  by  a  word  which  is  connected 
with  that  for  '  strength.'  It  stands  as  the  very  type 
and  emblem  of  stability  and  vigour.  Think  of  its  firm 
roots  by  which  it  is  anchored  deep  in  the  soil.  Think 
of  the  shelves  of  massive  dark  foliage.  Think  of  its  un- 
changed steadfastness  in  storm.  Think  of  its  towering 
height;  and  thus  arriving  at  the  meaning  of  the  emblem, 
let  us  translate  it  into  practice  in  our  own  lives.  *  He 
shall  cast  forth  his  roots  as  Lebanon.'    Beauty  ?    Yes ! 


140  HOSEA  [OH.  XIV. 

Purity  ?  Yes  !  And  braided  in  with  them,  if  I  may  so 
say,  the  strength  which  can  say  '  No ! '  which  can  resist, 
which  can  persist,  which  can  overcome ;  power  drawn 
from  communion  with  God.  'Strength  and  beauty* 
should  blend  in  the  worshippers,  as  they  do  in   the 

*  sanctuary '  in  God  Himself.  There  is  nothing  admir- 
able in  mere  force ;  there  is  often  something  sickly  and 
feeble,  and  therefore  contemptible  in  mere  beauty. 
Many  of  us  will  cultivate  the  complacent  and  the 
amiable  sides  of  the  Christian  life,  and  be  wanting  in 
the  manly  '  thews  that  throw  the  world,'  and  can  fight 
to  the  death.  But  we  have  to  try  and  bring  these  two 
excellences  of  character  together,  and  it  needs  an  im- 
mense deal  of  grace  and  wisdom  and  imitation  of  Jesus 
Christ,  and  a  close  clasp  of  His  hand,  to  enable  us  to  do 
that.  Speak  we  of  strength?  He  is  the  type  of  strength. 
Of  beauty?  He  is  the  perfection  of  beauty.  And  it  is 
only  as  we  keep  close  to  Him  that  our  lives  will  be  all 
fair  with  the  reflected  loveliness  of  His,  and  strong  with 
the  communicated  power  of  His  grace — 'strong  in  the 
Lord,  and  in  the  power  of  His  might.' 

Brethren,  if  we  are  to  set  forth  anything,  in  our 
daily  lives,  of  this  strength,  remember  that  our  lives 
must  be  rooted  in,  as  well  as  bedewed  by,  God.  Hosea's 
emblems,  beautiful  and  instructive  as  they  are,  do  not 
reach  to  the  deep  truth  set  forth  in  still  holier  and 
sweeter  words ;  '  I  am  the  Vine,  ye  are  the  branches.' 
The  union  of  Christ  and  His  people  is  closer  than  that 
between  dew  and  plant.  Our  growth  results  from  the 
communication  of  His  own  life  to  us.  Therefore  is  the 
command  stringent  and  obedience  to  it  blessed,  'Abide 
in  Me,   for  apart  from    Me  ye    can    do'  —  and   are — 

•  nothing.' 

Let  us  remember  that  the  loftier  the  top  of  the  tree 


vs.  5,  6]  THE  DEW  AND  THE  PLANTS      141 

and  the  wider  the  spread  of  its  shelves  of  dark  foliage, 
if  it  is  steadfastly  to  stand,  unmoved  by  the  loud  w^inds 
when  they  call,  the  deeper  must  its  roots  strike  into  the 
firm  earth.  If  your  life  is  to  be  a  fair  temple-palace 
worthy  of  God's  dwelling  in,  if  it  is  to  be  impregnable 
to  assault,  there  must  be  quite  as  much  masonry  under- 
ground as  above,  as  is  the  case  in  great  old  buildings 
and  palaces.  And  such  a  life  must  be  a  life  '  hid  with 
Christ  in  God,'  then  it  will  be  strong.  When  we  strike 
our  roots  deep  into  Him,  our  branch  also  shall  not 
wither,  and  our  leaf  shall  be  green,  and  all  that  we  do 
shall  prosper.  The  wicked  are  not  so.  They  are  like 
chaff  —  rootless,  fruitless,  lifeless,  which  the  wind 
driveth  away. 

IV.  Lastly,  the  God-bedewed  soul,  beautiful,  pure, 
strong,  will  bear  fruit. 

That  is  the  last  lesson  from  these  metaphors.  *  His 
beauty  shall  be  as  the  olive-tree.'  Anybody  that  has  ever 
seen  a  grove  of  olives  knows  that  their  beauty  is  not 
such  as  strikes  the  eye.  If  it  was  not  for  the  blue  sky 
overhead,  that  rays  down  glorifying  light,  they  would 
not  be  much  to  look  at  or  talk  about.  The  tree  has 
a  gnarled,  grotesque  trunk  which  divides  into  insig- 
nificant branches,  bearing  leaves  mean  in  shape,  harsh 
in  texture,  with  a  silvery  underside.  It  gives  but  a 
quivering  shade  and  has  no  massiveness,  nor  sym- 
metry. Ay !  but  there  are  olives  on  the  branches. 
And  so  the  beauty  of  the  humble  tree  is  in  what  it 
grows  for  man's  good.  After  all,  it  is  the  outcome  in 
fruitfulness  which  is  the  main  thing  about  us.  God's 
meaning,  in  all  His  gifts  of  dew,  and  beauty,  and  purity, 
and  strength,  is  that  we  should  be  of  some  use  in  the 
world. 

The  olive  is  crushed  into  oil,  and  the  oil  is  used  for 


142  HOSEA  [CH.  XIV. 

smoothing  and  suppling  joints  and  flesh,  for  nourish- 
ing and  sustaining  the  body  as  food,  for  illuminating 
darkness  as  oil  in  the  lamp.  And  these  three  things 
are  the  three  things  for  which  we  Christian  people 
have  received  all  our  dew,  and  all  our  beauty,  and  all 
our  strength — that  we  may  give  other  people  light, 
that  we  may  be  the  means  of  conveying  to  other 
people  nourishment,  that  we  may  move  gently  in  the 
world  as  lubricating,  sweetening,  soothing  influences, 
and  not  irritating  and  provoking,  and  leading  to  strife 
and  alienation.  The  question  after  all  is,  Does  anybody 
gather  fruit  off  us,  and  would  anybody  call  us  '  trees 
of  righteousness,  the  planting  of  the  Lord,  that  He 
may  be  glorified '  ?  That  is  lesson  four  from  this  text. 
May  we  all  open  our  hearts  for  the  dew  from  heaven, 
and  then  use  it  to  produce  in  ourselves  beauty,  purity, 
strength,  and  f ruitfulness ! 


AMOS 
A  PAIR  OF  FRIENDS 

*Can  two  walk  together,  except  they  be  agreed  ? '—Amos  iil.  8. 

They  do  not  need  to  be  agreed  about  everything.  They 
must,  however,  wish  to  keep  each  other's  company, 
and  they  must  be  going  by  the  same  road  to  the  same 
place.  The  application  of  the  parable  is  very  plain, 
though  there  are  differences  of  opinion  as  to  the  bear- 
ing of  the  whole  context  which  need  not  concern  us 
now.  The  'two,'  whom  the  Prophet  would  fain  see 
walking  together,  are  God  and  Israel,  and  his  question 
suggests  not  only  the  companionship  and  communion 
w^ith  God  which  are  the  highest  form  of  religion  and 
the  aim  of  all  forms  and  ceremonies  of  worship,  but 
also  the  inexorable  condition  on  which  alone  that 
height  of  communion  can  be  secured  and  sustained. 
Two  may  walk  together,  though  the  one  be  God  in 
heaven  and  the  other  be  I  on  earth.  But  they  have 
to  be  agreed  thus  far,  at  any  rate,  that  both  shall  wish 
to  be  together,  and  both  be  going  the  same  road. 

I.  So  I  ask  you  to  look,  first,  at  that  possible  blessed 
companionship  which  may  cheer  a  life. 

There  are  three  phrases  in  the  Old  Testament,  very 
like  each  other,  and  yet  presenting  different  facets  or 
aspects  of  the  same  great  truth.  Sometimes  we  read 
about '  walking  before  God,'  as  Abraham  was  bid  to  do. 
That  means  ordering  the  daily  life  under  the  continual 

143 


144  AMOS  [CH.III. 

sense  that  we  are  '  ever  in  the  great  Taskmaster's  eye.' 
Then  there  is  'walking  after  God,'  and  that  means 
conforming  the  will  and  active  efPorts  to  the  rule  that 
He  has  laid  down,  setting  our  steps  firm  on  the  paths 
that  He  has  prepared  that  we  should  walk  in  them, 
and  accepting  His  providences.  But  also,  high  above 
both  these  conceptions  of  a  devout  life  is  the  one  which 
is  suggested  by  my  text,  and  which,  as  you  remember, 
was  realised  in  the  case  of  the  patriarch  Enoch — 
'walking  with  God.'  For  to  walk  before  Him  may 
have  with  it  some  tremor,  and  may  be  undertaken  in 
the  spirit  of  the  slave  who  would  be  glad  to  get  away 
from  the  jealous  eye  that  rebukes  his  slothf ulness ; 
and  •  walking  after  Him '  may  be  a  painful  and  partial 
effort  to  keep  His  distant  figure  in  sight ;  but  to  '  walk 
with  Him'  implies  a  constant,  quiet  sense  of  His 
Divine  Presence  which  forbids  that  I  should  ever  be 
lonely,  which  guides  and  defends,  which  floods  my 
soul  and  fills  my  life,  and  in  which,  as  the  companions 
pace  along  side  by  side,  words  may  be  spoken  by  either, 
or  blessed  silence  may  be  eloquent  of  perfect  trust  and 
rest. 

But,  dear  brother,  far  above  us  as  such  experience 
seems  to  sound,  such  a  life  is  a  possibility  for  every 
one  of  us.  We  may  be  able  to  say,  as  truly  as  our 
Lord  said  it,  'I  am  not  alone,  for  the  Father  is  with 
me.'  It  is  possible  that  the  dreariest  solitude  of  a  soul, 
such  as  is  not  realised  when  the  body  is  removed  from 
men,  but  is  felt  most  in  the  crowded  city  where  there 
is  none  that  loves  or  fathoms  and  sympathises,  may  be 
turned  into  blessed  fellowship  with  Him.  Yes,  but 
that  solitude  will  not  be  so  turned  unless  it  is  first 
painfully  felt.  As  Daniel  said,  '  I  was  left  alone,  and  I 
saw  the  great  vision.'    We  need  to  feel  in  our  deepest 


V.  3]  A  PAIR  OF  FRIENDS  145 

hearts  that  loneliness  on  earth  before  we  walk  with 
God. 

If  we  are  so  walking,  it  is  no  piece  of  fanaticism  to 
say  that  there  will  be  mutual  communications.  Do  you 
not  believe  that  God  knows  His  way  into  the  spirits 
that  He  has  endowed  with  conscious  life  ?  Do  you 
not  believe  that  He  speaks  now  to  people  as  truly  as 
He  did  to  prophets  and  Apostles  of  old  ?  as  truly ;  though 
the  results  of  His  speech  to  us  of  to-day  be  not  of  the 
same  authority  for  others  as  the  words  that  He  spoke 
to  a  Paul  or  a  John.  The  belief  in  God's  communica- 
tions as  for  ever  sounding  in  the  depths  of  the  Christian 
spirit  does  not  at  all  obliterate  the  distinction  between 
the  kind  of  inspiration  which  produced  the  New  Testa- 
ment and  that  which  is  realised  by  all  believing  and 
obedient  souls.  High  above  all  our  experience  of  hear- 
ing the  words  of  God  in  our  hearts  stands  that  of  those 
holy  men  of  old  who  heard  God's  message  whispered  in 
their  ears,  that  they  might  proclaim  it  on  the  house- 
tops to  all  the  world  through  all  generations.  But 
though  they  and  we  are  on  a  different  level,  and  God 
spoke  to  them  for  a  different  purpose.  He  speaks  in 
our  spirits,  if  we  will  comply  with  the  conditions,  as 
truly  as  He  did  in  theirs.  As  really  as  it  was  ever  true 
that  the  Lord  spoke  to  Abraham,  or  Isaiah,  or  Paul, 
it  is  true  that  He  now  speaks  to  the  man  who  walks 
with  Him.  Frank  speech  on  both  sides  beguiles  many 
a  weary  mile,  when  lovers  or  friends  foot  it  side  by 
side ;  and  this  pair  of  friends  of  whom  our  text  speaks 
have  mutual  intercourse.  God  speaks  with  His  servant 
now,  as  of  old,  'as  a  man  speaketh  with  his  friend'; 
and  we  on  our  parts,  if  we  are  truly  walking  with  Him, 
shall  feel  it  natural  to  speak  frankly  to  God.  As  two 
friends  on  the  road  will  interchange  remarks  about 

K 


146  AMOS  [cH.ra. 

trifles,  and  if  they  love  each  other,  the  remarks  about 
the  trifles  will  be  weighted  with  love,  so  we  can  tell 
our  smallest  affairs  to  God;  and  if  we  have  Him  for 
our  Pilgrim-Companion,  we  do  not  need  to  lock  up  any 
troubles  or  concerns  of  any  sort,  big  or  little,  in  our 
hearts,  but  may  speak  them  all  to  our  Friend  who  goes 
with  us. 

The  two  may  walk  together.  That  is  the  end  of  all 
religion.  What  are  creeds  for  ?  What  are  services  and 
sacraments  for?  What  is  theology  for?  What  is 
Christ's  redeeming  act  for  ?  All  culminate  in  this  true, 
constant  fellowship  between  men  and  God.  And  unless, 
in  some  measure,  that  result  is  arrived  at  in  our  cases, 
our  religion,  let  it  be  as  orthodox  as  you  like,  our  faith 
in  the  redemption  of  Jesus  Christ,  let  it  be  as  real  as 
you  will,  our  attendances  on  services  and  sacraments, 
let  them  be  as  punctilious  and  regular  as  may  be,  are 
all '  sounding  brass  and  tinkling  cymbal.'  Get  side  by 
side  with  God ;  that  is  the  purpose  of  all  these,  and 
fellowship  with  Him  is  the  climax  of  all  religion. 

It  is  also  the  secret  of  all  blessedness,  the  only  thing 
that  will  make  a  life  absolutely  sovereign  over  sorrow, 
and  fixedly  unperturbed  by  all  tempests,  and  invulner- 
able to  all '  the  slings  and  arrows  of  outrageous  fortune.' 
Hold  fast  by  God,  and  you  have  an  amulet  against 
every  evil,  and  a  shield  against  every  foe,  and  a  mighty 
power  that  will  calm  and  satisfy  your  whole  being. 
Nothing  else,  nothing  else  will  do  so.  As  Augustine 
said,  '  O  God !  Thou  hast  made  us  for  Thyself,  and  in 
Thyself  only  are  we  at  rest.'  If  the  Shepherd  is  with 
us  we  will  fear  no  evil. 

II.  Now,  a  word,  in  the  next  place,  as  to  the  sadly 
incomplete  reality,  in  much  Christian  experience,  which 
contrasts  with  this  possibility. 


V.3]  A  PAIR  OF  FRIENDS  147 

I  am  afraid  that  very,  very  few  so-called  Christian 
people  habitually  feel,  as  they  might  do,  the  depth  and 
blessedness  of  this  communion.  And  sure  I  am  that 
only  a  very  small  percentage  of  us  have  anything  like 
the  continuity  of  companionship  which  my  text  suggests 
as  possible.  There  may  be,  and  therefore  there  should 
be,  running  unbroken  through  a  Christian  life  one 
long,  bright  line  of  communion  with  God  and  happy 
inspiration  from  the  sense  of  His  presence  with  us.  Is 
it  a  line  in  my  life,  or  is  there  but  a  dot  here,  and  a  dot 
there,  and  long  breaks  between  ?  The  long,  embarrassed 
pauses  in  a  conversation  between  two  who  do  not  know 
much  of,  or  care  much  for,  each  other  are  only  too  like 
what  occurs  in  many  professing  Christians'  intercourse 
with  God.  Their  communion  is  like  those  time-worn 
inscriptions  that  archaeologists  dig  up,  with  a  word 
clearly  cut  and  then  a  great  gap,  and  then  a  letter  or 
two,  and  then  another  gap,  and  then  a  little  bit  more 
legible,  and  then  the  stone  broken,  and  all  the  rest 
gone.  Did  you  ever  read  the  meteorological  reports  in 
the  newspapers  and  observe  a  record  like  this, '  Twenty 
minutes'  sunshine  out  of  a  possible  eight  hours '  ?  Do 
you  not  think  that  such  a  state  of  affairs  is  a  little  like 
the  experience  of  a  great  many  Christian  people  in 
regard  to  their  communion  with  God  ?  It  is  broken  at 
the  best,  and  imperfect  at  the  completest,  and  shallow 
at  the  deepest.  O,  dear  brethren !  rise  to  the  height  of 
your  possibilities,  and  live  as  close  to  God  as  He  lets 
you  live,  and  nothing  will  much  trouble  you. 

III.  And  now,  lastly,  a  word  about  the  simple  explana- 
tion of  the  failure  to  realise  this  continual  presence. 

'Can  two  walk  together  except  they  be  agreed?' 
Certainly  not.  Our  fathers,  in  a  sterner  and  more  re- 
ligious age  than  ours,  used  to  be  greatly  troubled  how 


148  AMOS  [CH.  m. 

to  account  for  a  state  of  Christian  experience  which 
they  supposed  to  be  due  to  God's  withdrawing  of  the 
sense  of  His  presence  from  His  children.  Whether  there 
is  any  such  withdrawal  or  not,  I  am  quite  certain  that 
that  is  not  the  cause  of  the  interrupted  communion 
between  God  and  the  average  Christian  man. 

I  make  all  allowance  for  the  ups  and  downs  and 
changing  moods  which  necessarily  affect  us  in  this 
present  life,  and  I  make  all  allowance,  too,  for  the 
pressure  of  imperative  duties  and  distracting  cares 
which  interfere  with  our  communion,  though,  if  we 
were  as  strong  as  we  might  be,  they  would  not  wile 
us  away  from,  but  drive  us  to,  our  Father  in  heaven. 
But  when  all  such  allowances  have  been  made,  I  come 
back  to  my  text  as  the  explanation  of  interrupted 
communion.  The  two  are  not  agreed ;  and  that  is  why 
they  are  not  walking  together.  The  consciousness  of 
God's  presence  with  us  is  a  very  delicate  thing.  It  is 
like  a  very  sensitive  thermometer,  which  will  drop  when 
an  iceberg  is  a  league  off  over  the  sea,  and  scarcely 
visible.  We  do  not  wish  His  company,  or  we  are  not 
in  harmony  with  His  thoughts,  or  we  are  not  going  His 
road,  and  therefore,  of  course,  we  part.  At  bottom 
there  is  only  one  thing  that  separates  a  soul  from  God, 
and  that  is  sin — sin  of  some  sort,  like  tiny  grains  of 
dust  that  get  between  two  polished  plates  in  an  engine 
that  ought  to  move  smoothly  and  closely  against  each 
other.  The  obstruction  may  be  invisible,  and,  yet  be 
powerful  enough  to  cause  friction,  which  hinders  the 
working  of  the  engine  and  throws  everything  out  of 
gear.  A  light  cloud  that  we  cannot  see  may  come 
between  us  and  a  star,  and  we  shall  only  know  it  is 
there,  because  the  star  is  not  visibly  there.  Similarly, 
many  a  Christian,  quite  unconsciously,  has  something 


V.  3]  A  PAIR  OF  FRIENDS  149 

or  other  in  his  habits,  or  in  his  conduct,  or  in  his  affec- 
tions, which  would  reveal  itself  to  him,  if  he  would 
look,  as  being  wrong,  because  it  blots  out  God. 

Let  us  remember  that  very  little  divergence  will,  if 
the  two  paths  are  prolonged  far  enough,  part  their 
other  ends  by  a  world.  Our  way  may  go  off  from  the 
ways  of  the  Lord  at  a  very  acute  angle.  There  may  be 
scarcely  any  consciousness  of  parting  company  at  the 
beginning.  Let  the  man  travel  on  upon  it  far  enough, 
and  the  two  will  be  so  far  apart  that  he  cannot  see 
God  or  hear  Him  speak.  Take  care  of  the  little  diver- 
gences which  are  habitual,  for  their  accumulated 
results  will  be  complete  separation.  There  must  be 
absolute  surrender  if  there  is  to  be  uninterrupted 
fellowship. 

Such,  then,  is  the  direction  in  which  we  are  to  look 
for  the  reasons  for  our  low  and  broken  experiences  of 
communion  with  God.  Oh,  dear  friends !  when  we  do 
as  we  sometimes  do,  wake  with  a  start,  like  a  child 
that  all  at  once  starts  from  sleep  and  finds  that  its 
mother  is  gone — when  we  wake  with  a  start  to  feel 
that  we  are  alone,  then  do  not  let  us  be  afraid  to  go 
straight  back.  Only  be  sure  that  we  leave  behind  us 
the  sin  that  parted  us. 

You  remember  how  Peter  signalised  himself  on  the 
lake,  on  the  occasion  of  the  second  miraculous  draught 
of  fishes,  when  he  floundered  through  the  water  and 
clasped  Christ's  feet.  He  did  not  say  then,  'Depart 
from  Me,  for  I  am  a  sinful  man,  O  Lord!'  He  had 
said  that  before  on  a  similar  occasion,  when  he  felt 
his  sin  less,  but  now  he  knew  that  the  best  place  for 
the  denier  was  with  his  head  on  Christ's  bosom.  So, 
if  we  have  parted  from  our  Friend,  there  should  be 
no  time  lost  ere  we  go  back.     May  it  be  true  of  us 


150  AMOS  [CH.IV. 

that  we  walk  with  God,  so  that  at  last  the  great 
promise  raay  be  fulfilled  about  us,  '  that  we  shall  walk 
with  Him  in  white,'  being  by  His  love  accounted 
'  worthy,'  and  so  '  follow,'  and  keep  company  with,  *  the 
Lamb  whithersoever  He  goeth  I ' 


SMITTEN  IN  VAIN 

*  Come  to  Beth-el,  and  transgress;  at  Gilgal  mnltiply  transgression;  and  bring 
your  sacrifices  every  morning,  and  your  tithes  after  three  years  :  5.  And  offer  a 
sacrifice  of  thanksgiving  with  leaven,  and  proclaim  and  publish  the  free  offerings  ; 
for  this  liketh  you,  O  ye  children  of  Israel,  saith  the  Lord  God.  6.  And  I  also  have 
given  you  cleanness  of  teeth  in  all  your  cities,  and  want  of  bread  in  all  your 
places  :  yet  have  ye  not  returned  unto  Me,  saith  the  Lord.  7.  And  also  I  have 
withholden  the  rain  from  you,  when  there  were  yet  three  months  to  the  harvest : 
and  I  caused  it  to  rain  upon  one  city,  and  caused  it  not  to  rain  upon  another  city : 
one  piece  was  rained  upon,  and  the  piece  whereupon  it  rained  not  withered.  8.  So 
two  or  three  cities  wandered  unto  one  city,  to  drink  water;  but  they  were  not 
satisfied :  yet  have  ye  not  returned  unto  Me,  saith  the  Lord.  9.  I  have  smitten  you 
with  blasting  and  mildew  :  when  your  gardens,  and  your  vineyards,  and  your  fig- 
trees,  and  your  olive-trees  increased,  the  palmerworm  devoured  them  :  yet  have  ye 
not  returned  unto  Me,  saith  the  Lord.  10.  I  have  sent  among  you  the  pestilence, 
after  the  manner  of  Egypt :  your  young  men  have  I  slain  with  the  sword,  and 
have  taken-away  your  horses  ;  and  I  have  made  the  stink  of  your  camps  to  come 
up  unto  your  nostrils  :  yet  have  ye  not  returned  unto  Me,  saith  the  Lord.  11.  I 
have  overthrown  some  of  you,  as  God  overthrew  Sodom  and  Gomorrah,  and  ye 
were  as  a  firebrand  plucked  out  of  the  burning :  yet  have  ye  not  returned  unto 
Me,  saith  the  Lord.  12.  Therefore  thus  will  I  do  unto  thee,  O  Israel :  and  because 
I  will  do  this  unto  thee,  prepare  to  meet  thy  God,  O  Israel.  13.  For,  lo,  He  that 
formeth  the  mountains,  and  createth  the  wind,  and  declareth  unto  man  what  is 
his  thought,  that  maketh  the  morning  darkness,  and  treadeth  upon  the  high 
places  of  the  earth,  The  Lord,  The  God  of  hosts,  is  His  name.'— Amos  iv.  4-13. 

The  reign  of  Jeroboam  ii.  was  one  of  brilliant  military 
success  and  of  profound  moral  degradation.  Amos 
was  a  simple,  hardy  shepherd  from  the  southern 
wilds  of  Judah,  and  his  prophecies  are  redolent  of  his 
early  life,  both  in  their  homely  imagery  and  in  the 
wholesome  indignation  and  contempt  for  the  silken- 
robed  vice  of  Israel.  No  sterner  picture  of  an  utterly 
rotten  social  state  was  ever  drawn  than  this  book  gives 
of  the  luxury,  licentiousness,  and  oppressiveness  of 
the  ruling  classes.  This  passage  deals  rather  with  the 
religious  declension  underlying  the  moral  filth,  and 


vs.  4-13]  SMITTEN  IN  VAIN  151 

sets  forth  the  self-willed  idolatry  of  the  people  (vs.  4, 5), 
their  obstinate  resistance  to  God's  merciful  chastise- 
ment (vs.  6-11),  and  the  heavier  impending  judgment 
(vs.  12,  13). 

I.  Indignant  irony  flashes  in  that  permission  or 
command  to  persevere  in  the  calf  worship.  The  seem- 
ing command  is  the  strongest  prohibition.  There  can 
be  no  worse  thing  befall  a  man  than  that  he  should  be 
left  to  go  on  frowardly  in  the  way  of  his  heart.  The 
real  meaning  is  sufficiently  emphasised  by  that  second 
verb,  '  and  transgress.'  *  Flock  to  one  temple  after 
another,  and  heap  altars  with  sacrifices  which  you 
were  never  bid  to  offer,  but  understand  that  what  you 
do  is  not  worship,  but  sin.'  That  is  a  smiting  sentence 
to  pass  upon  elaborate  ceremonial.  The  word  literally 
means  treason  or  rebellion,  and  by  it  Amos  at  one  blow 
shatters  the  whole  fabric.  Note,  too,  that  the  offering 
of  tithes  was  not  called  for  by  Mosaic  law,  'every 
three  days '  (Revised  Version),  and  that  the  use  of 
leaven  in  burnt  offerings  was  prohibited  by  it,  and 
also  that  to  call  for  freewill  offerings  was  to  turn 
spontaneousness  into  something  like  compulsion,  and  to 
bring  ostentation  into  worship.  All  these  character- 
istics spoiled  the  apparent  religiousness,  over  and 
above  the  initial  evil  of  disobedience,  and  warrant 
Amos's  crushing  equation,  'Your  worship  =  rebellion,' 
All  are  driven  home  by  the  last  words  of  verse  5,  '  So 
ye  love  it.'  The  reason  for  all  this  prodigal  ostentatious 
worship  was  to  please  themselves,  not  to  obey  God. 
That  tainted  everything,  and  always  does. 

The  lessons  of  this  burst  of  sarcasm  are  plain.  The 
subtle  influence  of  self  creeps  in  even  in  worship,  and 
makes  it  hollow,  unreal,  and  powerless  to  bless  the 
worshipper.     Obedience  is  better  than  costly  gifts.    The 


152  AMOS  [CH.IV. 

beginning  and  end  of  all  worship,  which  is  not  at  the 
same  time  'transgression,' is  the  submission  of  tastes, 
will,  and  the  whole  self.  Again,  men  will  lavish  gifts 
far  more  freely  in  apparent  religious  service,  which  is 
but  the  worship  of  their  reflected  selves,  than  in  true 
service  of  God.  Again,  the  purity  of  willing  offerings 
is  marred  when  they  are  given  in  response  to  a  loud 
call,  or,  when  given,  are  proclaimed  with  acclamations. 
Let  us  not  suppose  that  all  the  brunt  of  Amos's  indigna- 
tion fell  only  on  these  old  devotees.  The  principles 
involved  in  it  have  a  sharp  edge,  turned  to  a  great 
deal  which  is  allowed  and  fostered  among  ourselves. 

II.  The  blaze  of  indignation  changes  in  the  second 
part  of  the  passage  into  wounded  tenderness,  as  the 
Prophet  speaks  in  the  name  of  God,  and  recounts  the 
dreary  monotony  of  failure  attending  all  God's  loving 
attempts  to  arrest  Israel's  departure  by  the  mercy  of 
judgment.  Mark  the  sad  cadence  of  the  fivefold 
refrain,  *Ye  have  not  returned  unto  Me,  saith  the 
Lord.'  The  'unto'  implies  reaching  the  object  to 
which  we  turn,  and  is  not  the  less  forcible  but  more 
usual  word  found  in  this  phrase,  which  simply  means 
'  towards '  and  indicates  direction,  without  saying 
anything  as  to  how  far  the  return  has  gone.  So  there 
may  have  been  partial  moments  of  bethinking  them- 
selves, when  the  chastisement  was  on  Israel ;  but  there 
had  been  no  thorough  '  turning,'  which  had  landed 
them  at  the  side  of  God.  Many  a  man  turns  towards 
God,  who,  for  lack  of  resolved  perseverance,  never  so 
turns  as  to  get  to  God.  The  repeated  complaint  of  the 
inefficacy  of  chastisements  has  in  it  a  tone  of  sorrow 
and  of  wc  nder  which  does  not  belong  only  to  the 
Prophet.  If  we  remember  who  it  was  who  was 
•grieved  at  the   blindness    of    their  heart,'  and  who 


vi.4-13]  SMITTEN  IN  VAIN  153 

•wondered  at  their  unbelief,'  we  shall  not  fear  to 
recognise  here  the  attribution  of  the  same  emotions 
to  the  heart  of  God. 

To  Amos,  famine,  drought,  blasting,  locusts,  pestil- 
ence, and  probably  earthquake,  were  five  messengers 
of  God,  and  Amos  was  taught  by  God.  If  we  looked 
deeper,  we  should  see  more  clearly.  The  true  view  of 
the  relation  of  all  material  things  and  events  to  God  is 
this  which  the  herdsman  of  Tekoa  proclaimed.  These 
messengers  were  not  '  miracles,'  but  they  were  God's 
messengers  all  the  same.  Behind  all  phenomena  stands 
a  personal  will,  and  they  are  nearer  the  secret  of  the 
universe  who  see  God  working  in  it  all,  than  they  who 
see  all  forces  except  the  One  which  is  the  only  true 
force.  '  I  give  cleanness  of  teeth.  I  have  withholden 
the  rain.  I  have  smitten.  I  have  sent  the  pestilence. 
I  have  overthrown  some  of  you.'  To  the  Prophet's  eye 
the  world  is  all  aflame  with  a  present  God.  Let  no 
scientific  views,  important  and  illuminating  as  these 
may  be,  hide  from  us  the  deeper  truth,  which  lies 
beyond  their  region.  The  child  who  says  'God,'  has 
got  nearer  the  centre  than  the  scientist  who  says 
'  Force.' 

But  Amos  had  another  principle,  that  God  sent 
physical  calamities  because  of  moral  delinquencies  and 
for  moral  and  religious  ends.  These  disasters  were 
meant  to  bring  Israel  back  to  God,  and  were  at  once 
punishments  and  reformatory  methods.  No  doubt 
the  connection  between  sin  and  material  evils  was 
closer  under  the  Old  Testament  than  now.  But  if  we 
may  not  argue  as  Amos  did,  in  reference  to  such 
calamities  as  drought,  and  failures  of  harvests,  and 
the  like,  as  these  affect  communities,  we  may,  at  all 
events,  affirm  that,  in  the  case  of  the  individual,  he  is 


154  AMOS  [OH.  IV. 

a  wise  man  who  regards  all  outward  evil  as  having  a 
possible  bearing  on  his  bettering  spiritually.  'If  a 
drought  conies,  learn  to  look  to  your  irrigation,  and 
don't  cut  down  your  forests  so  wantonly,'  say  the  wise 
men  nowadays ;  '  if  pestilence  breaks  out,  see  to  your 
drainage.'  By  all  means.  These  things,  too,  are  God's 
commandments,  and  we  have  no  right  to  interpret  the 
consequences  of  infraction  of  physical  laws  as  being 
meant  to  punish  nations  for  their  breach  of  moral  and 
religious  ones.  If  we  were  prophets,  we  might,  but 
not  else.  But  still,  is  God  so  poor  that  He  can  have 
but  one  purpose  in  a  providence?  Every  sorrow,  of 
whatever  sort,  is  meant  to  produce  all  the  good  effects 
which  it  naturally  tends  to  produce;  and  since  every 
experience  of  pain  and  loss  and  grief  naturally  tends 
to  wean  us  from  earth,  and  to  drive  us  to  find  in  God 
what  earth  can  never  yield,  all  our  sorrows  are  His 
messengers  to  draw  us  back  to  Him.  Amos'  lesson 
as  to  the  purpose  of  trials  is  not  antiquated. 

But  he  has  still  another  to  teach  us ;  namely,  the 
awful  power  which  we  have  of  resisting  God's  efforts  to 
draw  us  back.  '  Our  wills  are  ours,  we  know  not  how,' 
but  alas !  it  is  too  often  not '  to  make  them  Thine.'  This 
is  the  true  tragedy  of  the  world  that  God  calls,  and  we 
do  refuse,  even  as  it  is  the  deepest  mystery  of  sinful 
manhood  that  God  calls  and  we  can  refuse.  What 
infinite  pathos  and  grieved  love,  thrown  back  upon 
itself,  is  in  that  refrain,  'Ye  have  not  returned  unto 
Me!'  How  its  recurrence  speaks  of  the  longsufferiug 
which  multiplied  means  as  others  failed,  and  of  the 
divine  charity,  which  'suffered  long,  was  not  soon 
angry,  and  hoped  all  things ! '  How  vividly  it  gives 
the  impression  of  the  obstinacy  that  to  all  effort 
opposed  insensibility,  and  clung  the  more  closely  and 


vs.  4-13]  SMITTEN  IN  VAIN  155 

insanely  to  the  idolatry  which  was  its  crime  and  its 
ruin  !  The  very  same  temper  is  deep  in  us  all.  Israel 
holds  up  the  mirror  in  which  we  may  see  ourselves. 
If  blows  do  not  break  iron,  they  harden  it.  A  wasted 
sorrow — that  is,  a  sorrow  which  does  not  drive  us  to 
God — leaves  us  less  impressible  than  it  found  us. 

III.  Again  the  mood  changes,  and  the  issue  of  pro- 
tracted resistance  is  prophesied  (vs.  12,  13).  'There- 
fore' sums  up  the  instances  of  refusal  to  be  warned, 
and  presents  them  as  the  cause  of  the  coming  evil. 
The  higher  the  dam  is  piled,  the  deeper  the  water  that 
is  gathered  behind  it,  and  the  surer  and  more  de- 
structive the  flood  when  it  bursts.  Long-delayed  judg- 
ments are  severe  in  proportion  as  they  are  slow. 
Note  the  awful  vagueness  of  threatening  in  that 
emphatic  'thus,'  as  if  the  Prophet  had  the  event  before 
his  eyes.  There  is  no  need  to  specify,  for  there  can  be 
but  one  result  from  such  obstinacy.  The  'terror  of 
the  Lord '  is  more  moving  by  reason  of  the  dimness 
which  wraps  it.  The  contact  of  divine  power  with 
human  rebellion  can  only  end  in  one  way,  and  that 
is  too  terrible  for  speech.  Conscience  can  translate 
•thus.'  The  thunder-cloud  is  all  the  more  dreadful  for 
the  vagueness  of  its  outline,  where  its  livid  hues  melt 
into  formless  black.    What  bolts  lurk  in  its  gloom  ? 

The  certainty  of  judgment  is  the  basis  of  a  call  to 
repentance,  which  may  avert  it.  The  meeting  with  God 
for  which  Israel  is  besought  to  prepare,  was,  of  course, 
not  judgment  after  death,  but  the  impending  destruc- 
tion of  the  Northern  Kingdom.  But  Amos's  prophetic 
call  is  not  misapplied  when  directed  to  that  final  day 
of  the  Lord.  Common-sense  teaches  preparation  for  a 
certain  future,  and  Amos's  trumpet-note  is  deepened 
and  re-echoed  by  Jesus  :  '  Be  ye  ready  also,  for  .  .  ,  the 


156  AMOS  [CH,  IV. 

Son  of  man  cometh.'  Note,  too,  that  Israel's  peculiar 
relation  to  God  is  the  very  ground  of  the  certainty  of 
its  punishment,  and  of  the  appeal  for  repentance. 
Just  because  He  is  '  thy  God,'  will  He  assuredly  come  to 
judge,  and  you  may  assuredly  prepare,  by  repentance, 
to  meet  Him.  The  conditions  of  meeting  the  Judge, 
and  being  '  found  of  Him  in  peace,'  are  that  we  should 
be  '  without  spot,  and  blameless ' ;  and  the  conditions 
of  being  so  spotless  and  uncensurable  are,  what  they 
were  in  Amos's  day,  repentance  and  trust.  Only  we 
have  Jesus  as  the  brightness  of  the  Father's  glory  to 
trust  in,  and  His  all-sufficient  work  to  trust  to,  for 
pardon  and  purifying. 

The  magnificent  proclamation  of  the  name  of  the 
Lord  which  closes  the  passage,  is  meant  as  at  once  a 
guarantee  of  His  judgment  and  an  enforcement  of  the 
call  to  be  ready  to  meet  Him.  He  in  creation  forms 
the  solid",  changeless  mountains  and  the  viewless, 
passing  wind.  The  most  stable  and  the  most  mobile 
are  His  work.  He  reads  men's  hearts,  and  can  tell 
them  their  thoughts  afar  off.  He  is  the  Author  of  all 
changes,  both  in  the  physical  and  the  moral  world, 
bringing  the  daily  wonder  of  sunrise  and  the  nightly 
shroud  of  darkness,  and  w^ith  like  alternation  blending 
joy  and  sorrow  in  men's  lives.  He  treads  *  on  the  high 
places  of  the  earth,'  making  all  created  elevations  the 
path  of  His  feet,  and  crushing  down  whatever  exalts 
itself.  Thus,  in  creation  almighty,  in  knowledge 
omniscient,  in  providence  changing  all  things  and 
Himself  the  same,  subjugating  all,  and  levelling  a  path 
for  His  purposes  across  every  opposition,  He  manifests 
His  name,  as  the  living,  eternal  Jehovah,  the  God  of 
the  Covenant,  and  therefore  of  judgment  on  its 
breakers,  and    as    the   Commander   and  God  of   the 


fs.4.13]       THE  SINS  OF  SOCIETY  157 

embattled  forces  of  the  universe.  Is  this  a  God  whose 
coming  to  judge  is  to  be  lightly  dealt  with  ?  Is  not 
this  a  God  whom  it  is  wise  for  us  to  be  ready  to  meet  ? 


THE  SINS  OF  SOCIETY 

•  For  thus  saith  the  Lord  unto  the  house  of  Israel,  Seek  ye  Me,  and  ye  shall  Uve : 
5.  But  seek  not  Beth-el,  nor  enter  into  Gilgal,  and  pass  not  to  Beer-sheba:  for 
Gilgal  shall  surely  go  into  captivity,  and  Beth-el  shall  come  to  nought.  6.  Seek 
the  Lord,  and  ye  shall  live ;  lest  He  break  out  like  fire  in  the  house  of  Joseph,  and 
devour  it,  and  there  be  uone  to  quench  it  in  Beth-el.  7.  Ye  who  turn  judgment  to 
wormwood,  and  leave  off  righteousness  in  the  earth,  8.  Seek  Him  that  maketh 
the  seven  stars  and  Orion,  and  turneth  the  shadow  of  death  into  the  morning, 
and  maketh  the  day  dark  with  night :  that  calleth  for  the  waters  of  the  sea,  and 
poureth  them  out  upon  the  face  of  the  earth :  The  Lord  is  His  name :  9.  That 
strengtheneth  the  spoiled  against  the  strong,  so  that  the  spoiled  shall  come  against 
the  fortress.  10.  They  hate  him  that  rebuketh  in  the  gate,  and  they  abhor  him  that 
speaketh  uprightly.  11.  Forasmuch  therefore  as  your  treading  is  upon  the  poor, 
and  ye  take  from  him  burdens  of  wheat :  ye  have  built  houses  of  hewn  stone,  but 
ye  shall  not  dwell  in  them  ;  ye  have  planted  pleasant  vineyards,  but  ye  shall  not 
drink  wine  of  them.  12.  For  I  know  your  manifold  transgressions  and  your 
mighty  sins :  they  afflict  the  just,  they  take  a  bribe,  and  they  turn  aside  the  poor 
in  the  gate  from  their  right.  13.  Therefore  the  prudent  shall  keep  silence  in  that 
time ;  for  it  is  an  evil  time.  14.  Seek  good,  and  not  evil,  that  ye  may  live  :  and  so 
the  Lord,  the  God  of  hosts,  shall  be  with  you,  as  ye  have  spoken.  15.  Hate  the 
evil,  and  love  the  good,  and  establish  judgment  in  the  gate :  it  may  be  that  the 
Lord  God  of  hosts  will  be  gracious  unto  the  remnant  of  Joseph.'— Amos  v.  4-15. 

The  reign  of  Jeroboam  li.  in  which  Amos  prophesied, 
was  a  period  of  great  prosperity  and  of  great  corrup- 
tion. Amos,  born  in  the  Southern  Kingdom,  and 
accustomed  to  the  simple  life  of  a  shepherd,  blazed 
up  in  indignation  at  the  signs  of  misused  wealth  and 
selfish  luxury  that  he  saw  everywhere,  in  what  was 
to  him  almost  a  foreign  country.  If  one  fancies  a 
godly  Scottish  Highlander  sent  to  the  West  end  of 
London,  or  a  Bible-reading  New  England  farmer's 
man  sent  to  New  York's  'upper  ten,'  one  will  have 
some  notion  of  this  prophet,  the  impressions  made, 
and  the  task  laid  on  him.  He  has  a  message  to  our 
state  of  society  which,  in  many  particulars,  resembles 
that  which  he  had  to  rebuke. 


158  AMOS  [CH.V. 

There  seems  to  be  a  slight  dislocation  in  the  order 
of  the  verses  of  the  passage,  for  verse  7  comes  in 
awkwardly,  breaking  the  connection  between  verses 
6  and  8,  and  itself  cut  off  from  verse  10,  to  which  it 
belongs.  If  we  remove  the  intruding  verse  to  a  posi- 
tion after  verse  9,  the  whole  passage  is  orderly  and 
falls  into  three  coherent  parts  :  an  exhortation  to  seek 
Jehovah,  enforced  by  various  considerations  (vs.  4-9) ;  a 
vehement  denunciation  of  social  vices  (vs.  7,  10-13) ;  and 
a  renewed  exhortation  to  seek  God  by  doing  right  to 
man  (vs.  14,  15). 

Amos's  first  call  to  Israel  is  but  the  echo  of  God's  to 
men,  always  and  everywhere.  All  circumstances,  all 
inward  experiences,  joy  and  sorrow,  prosperity  and 
disaster,  our  longings  and  our  fears,  they  all  cry 
aloud  to  us  to  seek  His  face.  That  loving  invitation 
is  ever  sounding  in  our  ears.  And  the  promise  which 
Amos  gave,  though  it  may  have  meant  on  his  lips  the 
continuance  of  national  life  only,  yet  had,  even  on  his 
lips,  a  deeper  meaning,  which  we  now  cannot  but  hear 
in  it.  For,  just  as  to  '  seek  the  Lord '  means  more  to 
us  than  it  did  to  Israel,  so  the  consequent  life  has 
greatened,  widened,  deepened  into  life  eternal.  But 
Amos's  narrower,  more  external  promise  is  true  still, 
and  there  is  no  surer  way  of  promoting  true  well- 
being  than  seeking  God.  'With  Thee  is  the  fountain 
of  life,'  in  all  senses  of  the  word,  from  the  lowest 
purely  physical  to  the  highest,  and  it  is  only  they 
who  go  thither  to  draw  that  will  carry  away  their 
pitchers  full  of  the  sparkling  blessing.  The  funda- 
mental principle  of  Amos's  teaching  is  an  eternal 
truth,  that  to  seek  God  is  to  find  Him,  and  to  find 
Him  is  life. 

But  Amos  further  teaches  us  that  such  seeking  is 


vs.  4-15]        THE  SINS  OF  SOCIETY  159 

not  real  nor  able  to  find,  unless  it  is  accompanied 
with  turning  away  from  all  sinful  quests  after  vani- 
ties. We  must  give  up  seeking  Bethel,  Gilgal,  or 
Beersheba,  seats  of  the  calf  worship,  if  we  are  to 
seek  God  to  purpose.  The  sin  of  the  Northern 
Kingdom  was  that  it  wanted  to  worship  Jehovah 
under  the  symbol  of  the  calves,  thus  trying  to  unite 
two  discrepant  things.  And  is  not  a  great  deal  of 
our  Christianity  of  much  the  same  quality?  Too 
many  of  us  are  doing  just  what  Elijah  told  the  crowds 
on  Carmel  that  they  were  doing,  trying  to  '  shuffle 
along  on  both  knees.'  We  would  seek  God,  but  we 
would  like  to  have  an  occasional  visit  to  Bethel.  It 
cannot  be  done.  There  must  be  detachment,  if  there 
is  to  be  any  real  attachment.  And  the  certain 
transiency  of  all  creatural  objects  is  a  good  reason 
for  not  fastening  ourselves  to  them,  lest  we  should 
share  their  fate.  '  Gilgal  shall  go  into  captivity,  and 
Bethel  shall  come  to  nought,'  therefore  let  us  join 
ourselves  to  the  Eternal  Love  and  we  shall  abide,  as  it 
abides,  for  ever. 

The  exhortation  is  next  enforced  by  presenting  the 
consequences  of  neglecting  it.  To  seek  Him  is  life, 
not  to  seek  Him  incurs  the  danger  of  finding  Him 
in  unwelcome  ways.  That  is  for  ever  true.  We  do 
not  get  away  from  God  by  forgetting  Him,  but  we 
run  the  risk  of  finding  in  Him,  not  the  fire  which 
vitalises,  purifies,  melts,  and  gladdens,  but  that  which 
consumes.  The  fire  is  one,  but  its  effects  are  two- 
fold. God  is  for  us  either  that  fire  into  which  it 
is  blessedness  to  be  baptized,  or  that  by  which  it  is 
death  to  be  burned  up.  And  what  can  Bethel,  or 
calves,  or  all  the  world  do  to  quench  it  or  pluck  us 
out  of  it  ? 


160  AMOS  [CH.  V. 

Once  more  the  exhortation  is  urged,  if  we  link  verse 
8  with  verse  6,  and  supply  '  Seek  ye '  at  its  beginning. 
Here  the  enforcement  is  drawn  from  the  considera- 
tions of  God's  workings  in  nature  and  history.  The 
shepherd  from  Tekoa  had  often  gazed  up  at  the  silent 
splendours  of  the  Pleiades  and  Orion,  as  he  kept  watch 
over  his  flocks  by  night,  and  had  seen  the  thick  dark- 
ness on  the  wide  uplands  thinning  away  as  the  morn- 
ing stole  up  over  the  mountains  across  the  Dead  Sea, 
and  the  day  dying  as  he  gathered  his  sheep  together. 
He  had  cowered  under  the  torrential  rains  which  swept 
across  his  exposed  homeland,  and  had  heard  God's  voice 
summoning  the  obedient  waters  of  the  sea,  that  He 
might  pour  them  down  in  rain.  But  the  moral 
government  of  the  world  also  calls  on  men  to  seek 
Jehovah.  *He  causeth  destruction  to  flash  forth  on 
the  strong,  so  that  destruction  cometh  upon  the  for- 
tress.' High  things  attract  the  lightning.  Godless 
strength  is  sure,  sooner  or  later,  to  be  smitten  down, 
and  no  fortress  is  so  impregnable  that  He  cannot 
capture  and  overthrow  it.  Surely  wisdom  bids  us  seek 
Him  that  does  all  these  wonders,  and  make  Him  our 
defence  and  our  high  tower. 

The  second  part  gives  a  vivid  picture  of  the  vices 
characteristic  of  a  prosperous  state  of  society  which 
is  godless,  and  therefore  selfishly  luxurious.  First, 
civil  justice  is  corrupted,  turned  into  bitterness,  and 
prostrated  to  the  ground.  Then  bold  denouncers  of 
national  sins  are  violently  hated.  Do  we  not  know 
that  phase  of  an  ungodly  and  rich  society?  What 
do  the  newspapers  say  about  Christians  who  try  to 
be  social  reformers?  Are  the  epithets  flung  at  them 
liker  bouquets  or  rotten  eggs?  'Fanatics  and  fad- 
dists' are  the  mildest  of  them.     Then  the  poor  are 


vs.  4-15]       THE  SINS  OF  SOCIETY  161 

trodden  down  and  have  to  give  large  parts  of  their 
scanty  harvests  to  the  rich.  Have  capital  and  labour 
just  proportions  of  their  joint  earnings?  Would  a 
sermon  on  verse  11  be  welcome  in  the  suburbs  of 
industrial  centres,  where  the  employers  have  their 
•houses  of  hewn  stone'?  Such  houses,  side  by  side 
with  the  poor  men's  huts,  struck  the  eye  of  the  shep- 
herd from  Tekoa  as  the  height  of  sinful  luxury,  and 
still  more  sinful  disproportion  in  the  social  condition 
of  the  two  classes.  What  would  he  have  said  if  he  had 
lived  in  England  or  America  ?  Justice,  too,  was  bought 
and  sold.  A  murderer  could  buy  himself  off,  while  the 
poor  man,  who  could  not  pay,  lost  his  case.  We  do  not 
bribe  judges,  but  (legal)  justice  is  an  expensive  luxury 
still,  and  counsel's  fees  put  it  out  of  the  reach  of  poor 
men. 

One  of  the  worst  features  of  such  a  state  of  society 
as  Amos  saw  is  that  men  are  afraid  to  speak  out  in 
condemnation  of  it,  and  the  ill  weeds  grow  apace 
for  want  of  a  scythe.  Amos  puts  a  certain  sad 
emphasis  on  '  prudent,'  as  if  he  was  feeling  how  little 
he  could  be  called  so,  and  yet  there  is  a  touch  of 
scorn  in  him  too.  The  man  who  is  over-careful  of 
his  skin  or  his  reputation  will  hold  his  tongue;  even 
good  men  may  become  so  accustomed  to  the  glaring 
corruptions  of  society  in  the  midst  of  which  they 
have  always  lived,  that  they  do  not  feel  any  call  to 
rebuke  or  wage  war  against  them;  but  the  brave 
man,  the  man  who  takes  his  ideals  from  Christ,  and 
judges  society  by  its  conformity  with  Christ's  stan- 
dard, will  not  keep  silence,  and  the  more  he  feels 
that  'It  is  an  evil  time'  the  more  will  he  feel  that 
he  cannot  but  speak  out,  whatever  comes  of  his  pro- 
test.    What  masquerades  as  prudence  is  very  often 

L 


162  AMOS  [CH.V. 

sinful  cowardice,  and  such  silence  is  treason  against 
Christ. 

The  third  part  repeats  the  exhortation  to  'seek,' 
with  a  notable  difference.  It  is  now  '  good '  that  is 
to  be  sought,  and  'evil'  that  is  to  be  turned  from. 
These  correspond  respectively  to  'Jehovah,'  and 
'Bethel,  Gilgal,  and  Beersheba,'  in  former  verses. 
That  is  to  say,  morality  is  the  garb  of  religion,  and 
religion  is  the  only  true  source  of  morality.  If  we  are 
not  seeking  the  things  that  are  lovely  and  of  good 
report,  our  professions  of  seeking  God  are  false ;  and 
we  shall  never  earnestly  and  successfully  seek  good  and 
hate  evil  unless  we  have  begun  by  seeking  and  finding 
God,  and  holding  Him  in  our  heart  of  hearts.  Modern 
social  reformers,  who  fancy  that  they  can  sweeten 
society  without  religion,  might  do  worse  than  go  to 
school  to  Amos. 

Notable,  too,  is  the  lowered  tone  of  confidence  in  the 
beneficial  result  of  obeying  the  Prophet's  call.  In  the 
earlier  exhortation  the  promise  had  been  absolute. 
'  Seek  ye  Me,  and  ye  shall  live ' ;  now  it  has  cooled 
to  'it  may  be.'  Is  Amos  faltering?  No;  but  while 
it  is  always  true  that  blessed  life  is  found  by  the 
seeker  after  God,  because  He  finds  the  very  source  of 
life,  it  is  not  always  true  that  the  consequences  of 
past  turnings  from  Him  are  diverted  by  repentance. 
'It  may  be'  that  these  have  to  be  endured,  but  even 
they  become  tokens  of  Jehovah's  graciousness,  and  the 
purified  '  remnant  of  Joseph '  will  possess  the  true  life 
more  abundantly  because  they  have  been  exercised 
thereby. 


THE  CARCASS  AND  THE  EAGLES 

•  Woe  to  them  that  are  at  ease  in  Zion,  and  trust  in  the  mountain  of  Samaria, 
which  are  named  chief  of  the  nations,  to  whom  the  house  of  Israel  came !  2.  Pass 
ye  unto  Calneh,  and  see ;  and  from  thence  go  ye  to  Hamath  the  great ;  then  go 
down  to  Gath  of  the  Philistines :  be  they  better  than  these  kingdoms  ?  or  their 
border  greater  than  your  border?  3.  Ye  that  put  far  away  the  evil  day,  and  cause 
the  seat  of  violence  to  come  near ;  L  That  lie  upon  beds  of  ivory,  and  stretch 
themselves  upon  their  couches,  and  eat  the  lambs  out  of  the  flock,  and  the  calves 
out  of  the  midst  of  the  stall ;  5.  That  chant  to  the  sound  of  the  viol,  and  invent  to 
themselves  instruments  of  musick,  like  David  ;  6.  That  drink  wine  in  bowls,  and 
anoint  themselves  with  the  chief  ointments:  but  they  are  not  grieved  for  the 
affliction  of  Joseph.  7.  Therefore  now  shall  they  go  captive  with  the  first  that  go 
captive,  and  the  banquet  of  them  that  stretched  themselves  shall  be  removed. 
8.  The  Lord  God  hath  sworn  by  Himself,  saith  the  Lord  the  God  of  hosts,  I  abhor 
the  excellency  of  Jacob,  and  hate  his  palaces :  therefore  will  I  deliver  up  the  city 
with  all  that  is  therein.'— Amos  vi.  1-8. 

Amos  prophesied  during  the  reign  of  Jeroboam,  the 
son  of  Joash.  Jeroboam's  reign  was  a  time  of  great 
prosperity  for  Israel.  Moab,  Gilead,  and  part  of  Syria 
were  reconquered,  and  the  usual  effects  of  conquest, 
increased  luxury  and  vainglory,  followed.  Amos  was 
not  an  Israelite  born,  for  he  came  from  Tekoa, 
away  down  south,  in  the  wild  country  west  of  the 
Dead  Sea,  where  he  had  been  a  simple  herdsman  till 
the  divine  call  sent  him  into  the  midst  of  the  corrupt 
civilisation  of  the  Northern  Kingdom.  The  first  words 
of  his  prophecy  give  its  whole  spirit :  '  The  Lord  will 
roar  from  Zion.'  The  word  rendered  '  roar '  is  the  term 
specially  used  for  the  terrible  cry  with  which  a  lion 
leaps  on  its  surprised  prey  (Amos  iii.  4,  8).  It  is  from 
Zion,  the  seat  of  God's  Temple,  that  the  '  roar '  proceeds, 
and  Amos's  prophecy  is  but  the  echo  of  it  in  Israel. 

The  prophecy  of  judgment  in  this  passage  is  directed 
against  the  sins  of  the  upper  classes  in  Samaria.  They 
are  described  in  verse  1  as  the  'notable  men  ...  to 
whom  the  house  of  Israel  come,'  which,  in  modern 
language,  is  just  '  conspicuous  citizens,'  who  set  the 

163 


164  AMOS  [CH.  VL 

fashion,  and  are  looked  to  as  authorities  and  leaders, 
whether  in  political  or  commercial  or  social  life.  The 
word  by  which  they  are  designated  is  used  in  Numbers 
i.  17 : '  Which  are  expressed  by  name.'  The  word '  carried 
back  the  thoughts  of  the  degenerate  aristocracy  of 
Israel  to  the  faith  and  zeal  of  their  forefathers '  (Pusey, 
Minor  Prophets,  on  this  verse).  Israel,  Amos  calls  '  The 
first  of  the  nations.'  It  is  singular  that  such  a  title 
should  be  given  to  the  nation  against  whose  corruption 
his  one  business  is  to  testify,  but  probably  there  is  keen 
irony  in  the  word.  It  takes  Israel  at  its  own  estimate, 
and  then  goes  on  to  show  how  rotten,  and  therefore 
short-lived,  was  the  prosperity  which  had  swollen 
national  pride  to  such  a  pitch.  The  chiefs  of  the  fore- 
most nation  in  the  world  should  surely  be  something 
better  than  the  heartless  debauchees  whom  the  Prophet 
proceeds  to  paint.  Anglo-Saxons  on  both  sides  of  the 
Atlantic,  who  are  by  no  means  deficient  in  this  same 
complacent  estimate  of  their  own  superiority  to  all 
other  peoples,  may  take  note.  The  same  thought  is 
prominent  in  the  description  of  these  notables  as  *at 
ease.'  They  are  living  in  a  fool's  paradise,  shutting 
their  eyes  to  the  thunder-clouds  that  begin  to  rise 
slowly  above  the  horizon,  and  keeping  each  other  in 
countenance  in  laughing  at  Amos  and  his  gloomy  fore- 
casts. They  '  trusted  in  the  mountain  of  Samaria,' 
which,  they  thought,  made  the  city  impregnable  to 
assault.  No  doubt  they  thought  that  the  Prophet's  talk 
about  doing  right  and  trusting  in  Jehovah  was  very 
fanatical  and  unpractical,  just  as  many  in  England  and 
America  think  that  their  nations  are  exalted,  not  by 
righteousness,  but  by  armies,  navies,  and  dollars  or 
sovereigns. 
Verse  2  is  very  obscure  to  us  from  our  ignorance 


▼8.1-8]  THE  CARCASS  AND  THE  EAGLES  165 

of  the  facts  underlying  its  allusions.  In  fact,  it  has 
been  explained  in  exactly  opposite  ways,  being  taken 
by  some  to  enumerate  three  instances  of  prosperous 
communities,  which  yet  are  not  more  prosperous  than 
Israel,  and  by  others  to  enumerate  three  instances  of 
God's  judgments  falling  on  places  which,  though 
strong,  had  been  conquered.  In  the  former  explana- 
tion, God's  favour  to  Israel  is  made  the  ground  of  an 
implied  appeal  to  their  gratitude ;  in  the  latter.  His 
judgments  on  other  nations  are  made  the  ground  of  an 
appeal  to  their  fear,  lest  like  destruction  should  fall  on 
them. 

But  the  main  points  of  the  passage  are  the  photo- 
graph of  the  crimes  which  are  bringing  the  judgment 
of  God,  and  the  solemn  divine  oath  to  inflict  the  judg- 
ment. The  crimes  rebuked  are  not  the  false  worship 
of  the  calves,  though  in  other  parts  of  his  prophecy 
Amos  lashes  that  with  terrible  invectives,  nor  foul 
breaches  of  morality,  though  these  were  not  wanting 
in  Israel,  but  the  vices  peculiar  to  selfish,  luxurious 
upper  classes  in  all  times  and  countries,  who  forget  the 
obligations  of  wealth,  and  think  only  of  its  possibilities 
of  self-indulgence.  French  noblesse  before  the  Revolu- 
tion, and  English  peers  and  commercial  magnates,  and 
American  millionaires,  would  yield  examples  of  the 
same  sin.  The  hardy  shepherd  from  Tekoa  had  learned 
'plain  living  and  high  thinking'  before  he  was  a 
prophet,  and  would  look  with  wondering  and  disgusted 
eyes  at  the  wicked  waste  which  he  saw  in  Samaria. 
He  begins  with  scourging  the  reckless  security  already 
referred  to.  These  notables  in  Israel  were  '  at  ease ' 
because  they  '  put  far  away  the  evil  day,'  by  refusing 
to  believe  that  it  was  at  hand,  and  paying  no  heed  to 
prophets'  warnings,  as  their  fellows  do  still  and  always, 


166  AMOS  [CH.VI. 

and  as  we  all  are  tempted  to  do.  They  who  see  and 
declare  the  certain  end  of  national  or  personal  sins  are 
usually  jeered  at  as  pessimists,  fanatics,  alarmists,  bad 
patriots,  or  personal  ill-wishers,  and  the  men  whom 
they  try  to  warn  fancy  that  they  hinder  the  coming  of 
a  day  of  retribution  by  disbelieving  in  its  coming. 
Incredulity  is  no  lightning-conductor  to  keep  off  the 
flash,  and,  listened  to  or  not,  the  low  growls  of  the 
thunder  are  coming  nearer. 

With  one  hand  these  sinners  tried  to  push  away 
the  evil  day,  while  with  the  other  they  drew  near  to 
themselves  that  which  made  its  coming  certain — 'the 
seat  of  violence,'  or,  rather,  '  the  sitting,'  or  *  session.' 
Violence,  or  wrongdoing,  is  enthroned  by  them,  and 
where  men  enthrone  iniquity,  God's  day  of  vengeance 
is  not  far  off. 

Then  follows  a  graphic  picture  of  the  senseless, 
corrupting  luxury  of  the  Samaritan  magnates,  on 
which  the  Tekoan  shepherd  pours  his  scorn,  but  which 
is  simplicity  itself,  and  almost  asceticism,  before  what 
he  would  see  if  he  came  to  London  or  New  York.  To 
him  it  seemed  effeminate  to  loll  on  a  divan  at  meals, 
and  possibly  it  was  a  custom  imported  from  abroad. 
It  is  noted  that  '  the  older  custom  in  Israel  was  to  sit 
while  eating.'  The  woodwork  of  the  divans,  inlaid 
with  ivory,  had  caught  his  eye  in  some  of  his  peeps 
into  the  great  houses,  and  he  inveighs  against  them 
very  much  as  one  of  the  Pilgrim  Fathers  might  do  if 
he  could  see  the  furniture  in  the  drawing-rooms  of 
some  of  his  descendants.  There  is  no  harm  in  pretty 
things,  but  the  aesthetic  craze  does  sometimes  indicate 
and  increase  selfish  heartlessness  as  to  the  poverty  and 
misery,  which  have  not  only  no  ivory  on  their  divans,  but 
no  divans  at  all.    Thus  stretched  in  unmanly  indolence 


vs.1-8]  THE  CARCASS  AND  THE  EAGLES  167 

on  their  cushions,  they  feast  on  delicacies.  *  Lambs  out 
of  the  flock '  and  '  calves  out  of  the  stall '  seem  to  mean 
animals  too  young  to  be  used  as  food.  These  gour- 
mands, like  their  successors,  prided  themselves  on 
having  dainties  out  of  season,  because  they  were  more 
costly  then.  And  their  feasts  had  the  adornment  of 
music,  which  the  shepherd,  who  knew  only  the  pastoral 
pipe  that  gathered  Lis  sheep,  refers  to  with  contempt. 
He  uses  a  very  rare  word  of  uncertain  meaning,  which 
is  probably  best  rendered  in  some  such  way  as  the 
Revised  Version  does :  '  They  sing  idle  songs.'  To  him 
their  elaborate  performances  seemed  like  empty  babble. 
Worse  than  that,  they  'devise  musical  instruments 
like  David.'  But  how  unlike  him  in  the  use  they  make 
of  art !  What  a  descent  from  the  praises  of  God  to  the 
'idle  songs 'fit  for  the  hot  dining-halls  and  the  guests 
there !  Amos  was  indignant  at  the  profanation  of  art, 
and  thought  it  best  used  in  the  service  of  God.  What 
would  he  have  said  if  he  had  been  'fastened  into  a 
front-row  box,'  and  treated  to  a  modern  opera? 

The  revellers  '  drink  wine  in  bowls,'  by  which  larger 
vessels  than  generally  employed  are  intended.  They 
drank  to  excess,  or  as  we  might  say,  by  bucketfuls.  So 
the  dainty  feast,  with  its  artistic  refinement  and  music, 
ends  at  last  in  a  brutal  carouse,  and  the  heads  anointed 
with  the  most  costly  unguents  drop  in  drunken  slumber. 
A  similar  picture  of  Samaritan  manners  is  drawn  by 
Isaiah  (chap,  xxviii.),  and  obviously  drunkenness  was 
one  of  the  besetting  sins  of  the  capital. 

But  the  darkest  hue  in  the  dark  picture  has  yet  to  be 
added :  '  They  are  not  grieved  for  the  affliction  (literally, 
the  'breach,'  or  'wound')  of  Joseph.'  The  tribe  of 
Ephraim,  Joseph's  son,  being  the  principal  tribe  of  the 
Northern  Kingdom,  Joseph  is  often  employed   as   a 


168  AMOS  [OH.  VI. 

synonym  for  Israel.  All  these  pieces  of  luxury,  corrupt- 
ing and  effeminate  as  they  are,  might  be  permitted,  but 
heartless  indifference  to  the  miseries  groaning  at  the 
door  of  the  banqueting-hall  goes  with  them.  'The 
classes '  are  indifferent  to  the  condition  of  '  the  masses.' 
Put  Amos  into  modern  English,  and  he  is  denouncing 
the  heartlessness  of  wealth,  refinement,  art,  and  culture, 
which  has  no  ear  for  the  complaining  of  the  poor,  and 
no  eyes  to  see  either  the  sorrows  and  sins  around  it,  or 
the  lowering  cloud  that  is  ready  to  burst  in  tempest. 

The  inevitable  issue  is  certain,  because  of  the  very 
nature  of  God.  It  is  outlined  with  keen  irony.  Amos 
sees  in  imagination  the  long  procession  of  sad  captives, 
and  marching  in  the  front  ranks,  the  self-indulgent 
Sybarites,  whose  pre-eminence  is  now  only  the  melan- 
choly prerogative  of  going  first  in  the  fettered  train. 
What  has  become  of  their  revelry  ?  It  is  gone,  like  the 
imaginary  banquets  of  dreams,  and  instead  of  luxurious 
lolling  on  silken  couches,  there  is  the  weary  tramp  of 
the  captive  exiles.  Such  result  must  be,  since  God  is 
what  He  is.  He  has  sworn  '  by  Himself ' ;  His  being  and 
character  are  the  pledge  that  it  will  be  so  as  Amos  has 
declared.  How  can  such  a  God  as  He  is  do  otherwise 
than  hate  the  pride  of  such  a  selfish,  heartless,  God- 
forgetting  aristocracy  ?  How  can  He  do  otherwise  than 
deliver  up  the  city  ?  God  has  not  changed,  and  though 
His  mills  grind  slowly,  they  do  grind  still ;  and  it  is  as 
true  for  England  and  America,  as  it  was  for  Samaria, 
that  a  wealthy  and  leisurely  upper  class,  which  cares 
only  for  material  luxury  glossed  over  by  art,  which  has 
condescended  to  be  its  servant,  is  bringing  near  the  evil 
day  which  it  hugs  itself  into  believing  will  never  come. 


RIPE  FOR  GATHERING 

•Thus  hath  the  Lord  God  shewed  unto  me :  and  behold  a  basket  of  summer  fruit. 
2.  And  He  said,  Amos,  what  seest  thou?  And  I  said,  A  basket  of  summer  fruit. 
Then  said  the  Lord  unto  me,  The  end  is  come  upon  My  people  of  Israel ;  I  will  not 
again  pass  by  them  any  more.  3.  And  the  songs  of  the  temple  shall  be  bowlings 
in  that  day,  saith  the  Lord  God :  there  shall  be  many  dead  bodies  in  every  place ; 
they  shall  cast  them  forth  with  silence.  4.  Hear  this,  O  ye  that  swallow  up  the 
needy,  even  to  make  the  poor  of  the  land  to  fail,  5.  Saying,  When  will  the  new 
moon  begone,  that  we  may  sell  corn?  and  the  sabbath,  that  we  may  set  forth 
wheat,  making  the  ephah  small,  and  the  shekel  great,  and  falsifying  the  balances 
by  deceit?  6.  That  we  may  buy  the  poor  for  silver,  and  the  needy  for  a  pair  of 
shoes;  yea,  and  sell  the  refuse  of  the  wheat?  7.  The  Lord  hath  sworn  by  the 
excellency  of  Jacob,  Surely  I  will  never  forget  any  of  their  works.  8.  Shall  not  the 
land  tremble  for  this,  and  every  one  mourn  that  dwelleth  therein  ?  and  it  shall  rise 
up  wholly  as  a  flood ;  and  it  shall  be  cast  out  and  drowned,  as  by  the  flood  of  Egypt. 
9.  And  it  shall  come  to  pass  in  that  day,  saith  the  Lord  God,  that  I  will  cause  the 
sun  to  go  down  at  noon,  and  I  will  darken  the  earth  in  the  clear  day:  10.  And  I 
will  turn  your  feasts  into  mourning,  and  all  your  songs  into  lamentation  ;  and  I 
will  bring  up  sackcloth  upon  all  loins,  and  baldness  upon  every  head ;  and  I  will 
make  it  as  the  mourning  of  an  only  son,  and  the  end  thereof  as  a  bitter  day. 
11.  Behold,  the  days  come,  saith  the  Lord  God,  that  I  will  send  a  famine  in  the 
land,  not  a  famine  of  bread,  nor  a  thirst  for  water,  but  of  hearing  the  words  of  the 
Lord :  12.  And  they  shall  wander  from  sea  to  sea,  and  from  the  north  even  to 
the  east,  they  shall  run  to  and  fro  to  seek  the  word  of  the  Lord,  and  shall  not  find 
it.  13.  In  that  day  shall  the  fair  virgins  and  young  men  faint  for  thirst.  U.  They 
that  swear  by  the  sin  of  Samaria,  and  say.  Thy  God,  O  Dan,  liveth :  and.  The 
manner  of  Beer-sheba  liveth ;  even  they  shall  fall,  and  never  rise  up  again.'— 
Amos  viii.  1-14. 

There  are  three  visions  in  the  former  chapter,  each 
beginning  as  verse  1.  This  one  is  therefore  intended 
to  be  taken  as  the  continuation  of  these,  and  it  is  in 
substance  a  repetition  of  the  third,  only  with  more 
detail  and  emphasis.  An  insolent  attempt,  by  the 
priest  of  Beth-el,  to  silence  the  Prophet,  and  the  fiery 
ans%ver  which  he  got  for  his  pains,  come  between.  The 
stream  of  Amos's  prophecy  flows  on,  uninterrupted 
by  the  boulder  which  had  tried  to  dam  it  up.  Some 
courage  was  needed  to  treat  Amaziah  and  his  blasphem- 
ous bluster  as  a  mere  parenthesis. 

We  have  first  to  note  the  vision  and  its  interpretation. 
It  is  such  as  a  countryman, '  a  dresser  of  sycamore  trees,' 
would  naturally  have.    Experience  supplies  forms  and 


170  AMOS  [cH.vm. 

material  for  the  imagination,  and  moulds  into  which 
God-given  revelations  run.  The  point  of  the  vision  is 
rather  obscured  by  the  rendering  '  summer  fruit.'  '  Ripe 
fruit '  would  be  better,  since  the  emblem  represents  the 
Northern  Kingdom  as  ripe  for  the  dreadful  ingathering 
of  judgment.  The  word  for  this  (qayits)  and  that  for 
'  the  end '  (gets)  are  alike  in  sound,  but  the  play  of  words 
cannot  be  reproduced,  except  by  some  clumsy  device, 
such  as  'the  end  ripens,'  or '  the  time  of  ripeness  comes.' 
The  figure  is  frequent  in  other  prophecies  of  judgment, 
as,  for  instance,  in  Revelation  xiv.  14-20. 

Observe  the  repetition,  from  the  preceding  vision,  of 
'I  will  not  pass  by  them  any  more.'  The  first  two 
visions  had  threatened  judgments,  which  had  been 
averted  by  the  Prophet's  intercession ;  but  the  third, 
and  now  the  fourth,  declare  that  the  time  for  pro- 
longed impunity  is  passed.  Just  as  the  mellow  ripeness 
of  the  fruit  fixes  the  time  of  gathering  it,  so  there 
comes  a  stage  in  national  and  individual  corruption, 
when  there  is  nothing  to  be  done  but  to  smite.  That 
period  is  not  reached  because  God  changes,  but  because 
men  get  deeper  in  sin.  Because  '  the  harvest  is  ripe,' 
the  long-delayed  command,  '  Put  in  thy  sickle,'  is  given 
to  the  angel  of  judgment,  and  the  clusters  of  those 
black  grapes,  whose  juice  in  the  wine-press  of  the 
wrath  of  God  is  blood,  are  cut  down  and  cast  in.  It  is 
a  solemn  lesson,  applying  to  each  soul  as  well  as  to 
communities.  By  neglect  of  God's  voice,  and  persist- 
ence in  our  own  evil  ways,  we  can  make  ourselves  such 
that  we  are  ripe  for  judgment,  and  can  compel  long- 
suffering  to  strike.  Which  are  we  ripening  for — the 
harvest  when  the  wheat  shall  be  gathered  into  Christ's 
barns,  or  that  when  the  tares  shall  be  bound  in  bundles 
for  burning  ? 


V8.1-U]       RIPE  FOR  GATHERING  171 

The  tragedy  of  that  fruit-gathering  is  described 
with  extraordinary  grimness  and  force  in  the  abrupt 
language  of  verse  3.  The  merry  songs  sung  in  the 
palace  (this  rendering  seems  more  appropriate  here 
than  '  temple ')  will  be  broken  off,  and  the  singers' 
voices  will  quaver  into  shrill  shrieks,  so  suddenly  will 
the  judgment  be.  Then  comes  a  picture  as  abrupt  in 
its  condensed  terribleness  as  anything  in  Tacitus — 
•Many  the  corpses;  everywhere  they  fling  them; 
bush  ! '  We  see  the  ghastly  masses  of  dead  ('  corpse ' 
is  in  the  singular,  as  if  a  collective  noun),  so  numerous 
that  no  burial-places  could  hold  them ;  and  no  cere- 
monial attended  them,  but  they  were  rudely  flung 
anywhere  by  anybody  (no  nominative  is  given),  with 
no  accustomed  voice  of  mourning,  but  in  gloomy 
silence.  It  is  like  Defoe's  picture  of  the  dead-cart 
in  the  plague  of  London.  Such  is  ever  the  end  of 
departing  from  God — songs  palsied  into  silence  or 
turned  into  wailing  when  the  judgment  bursts;  death 
stalking  supreme,  and  silence  brooding  over  all. 

The  crimes  that  ripened  men  for  this  terrible  harvest 
are  next  set  forth,  in  part,  in  verses  4  to  6.  These  verses 
partly  coincide  verbally  with  the  previous  indictment  in 
Amos  ii.  6,  etc.,  which,  however,  is  more  comprehensive. 
Here  only  one  form  of  sin  is  dealt  with.  And  what 
was  the  sin  that  deserved  the  bad  eminence  of  being 
thus  selected  as  the  chief  sign  that  Israel  was  ripe  and 
rotten  ?  Precisely  the  one  which  gets  most  indulgence 
in  the  Christian  Church  ;  namely,  eagerness  to  be  rich, 
and  sharp,  unkindly  dealing.  These  men,  who  were 
only  fit  to  be  swept  out  of  the  land,  were  most  punctual 
in  their  religious  duties.  They  would  not  on  any 
account  do  business  either  on  a  festival  or  on  Sabbath, 
but    they  were  very    impatient    till — shall    we  say? 


172  AMOS  [cH.vin. 

Monday  morning  came — that  they  might  get  to  their 
beloved  work  again. 

Their  lineal  descendants  are  no  strangers  on  the 
exchanges,  or  in  the  churches  of  London  or  New  York. 
They  were  not  only  outwardly  scrupulous  and  inwardly 
weary  of  religious  observances,  but  when  they  did  get 
to  '  business,'  they  gave  short  measure  and  took  a  long 
price,  and  knew  how  to  turn  the  scales  always  in  their 
own  favour.  It  was  the  expedient  of  rude  beginners 
in  the  sacred  art  of  getting  the  best  of  a  bargain,  to 
put  a  false  bottom  in  the  ephah,  and  to  stick  a  piece  of 
lead  below  the  shekel  weight,  which  the  purchaser  had 
to  make  go  up  in  the  scale  with  his  silver.  There  are 
much  neater  ways  of  doing  the  same  thing  now ;  and 
no  doubt  some  very  estimable  gentlemen  in  high  repute 
as  Christians,  who  give  respectability  to  any  church  or 
denomination,  could  have  taught  these  early  practi- 
tioners a  lesson  or  two. 

They  were  as  cruel  as  they  were  greedy.  They 
bought  their  brethren  as  slaves,  and  if  a  poor  man 
had  run  into  their  debt  for  even  a  pair  of  shoes,  they 
would  sell  him  up  in  a  very  literal  sense.  Avarice, 
unbridled  by  the  fear  of  God,  leads  by  a  short  cut  to 
harshness  and  disregard  of  the  claims  of  others.  There 
are  more  ways  of  buying  the  needy  for  a  pair  of  shoes 
than  these  people  practised. 

The  last  touch  in  the  picture  is  meanness,  which 
turned  everything  into  money.  Even  what  fell  through 
the  sieve  when  wheat  was  winnowed,  which  ought  to 
have  been  given  to  anybody,  was  carefully  scraped  up, 
and,  dirty  as  it  was,  sold.  Is  not  'nothing  for  nothing' 
an  approved  maxim  to-day  ?  Are  not  people  held  up 
as  shining  lights  of  commerce,  who  have  the  faculty  of 
turning  everything  into  saleable  articles  ?  Some  serious 


v8. 1-U]       RIPE  FOR  GATHERING  178 

reflections  ought  to  be  driven  home  to  us  who  live  in 
great  commercial  communities,  and  are  in  manifold 
vrays  tempted  to  *  leam  their  ways,  and  so  get  a  snare 
unto  our  souls,'  by  this  gibbeting  of  tempers  and 
customs,  very  common  among  ourselves,  as  the  very 
head  and  front  of  the  sin  of  Israel,  which  determined 
its  ripeness  for  destruction. 

The  catalogue  of  sins  is  left  incomplete  (compare 
with  chapter  ii.),  as  if  holy  indignation  turned  for 
relief  to  the  thought  of  the  certain  judgment.  That 
certainly  is  strongly  affirmed  by  the  representation  of 
the  oath  of  Jehovah.  'He  can  swear  by  no  other,' 
therefore  He  '  swears  by  Himself;  and  the  'excellency 
of  Jacob'  cannot  with  propriety  mean  anything  else 
than  Him  who  is,  or  ought  to  be,  the  sole  ground  of 
confidence  and  occasion  of  '  boasting '  to  the  nation 
(Hos.  V.  5).  He  gives  His  own  being  as  the  guarantee 
that  judgment  shall  fall.  As  surely  as  God  is  God, 
injustice  and  avarice  will  ruin  a  nation.  We  talk 
now  about  necessary  consequences  and  natural  laws 
rendering  penalties  inevitable.  The  Bible  suggests  a 
deeper  foundation  for  their  certain  incidence — even  the 
very  nature  of  God  Himself.  As  long  as  He  is  what 
He  is,  covetousness  and  its  child,  harshness  to  the 
needy,  will  be  sin  against  Him,  and  be  avenged  sooner 
or  later.  God  has  a  long  and  a  wide  memory,  and  the 
sins  which  He  *  remembers '  are  those  which  He  has  not 
forgiven,  and  will  punish. 

Amos  heaps  image  on  image  to  deepen  the  impression 
of  terror  and  confusion.  Everything  is  turned  to  its 
opposite.  The  solid  land  reels,  rises,  and  falls,  like 
the  Nile  in  flood  (see  Revised  Version).  The  sun  sets 
at  midday,  and  noon  is  darkness.  Feasts  change  to 
mourning,  songs  to  lamentations.    Rich  garments  are 


174  AMOS  [CH.  VIII. 

put  aside  for  sackcloth,  and  flowing  locks  drop  off  and 
leave  bald  heads.  These  are  evidently  all  figures  vividly 
piled  together  to  express  the  same  thought.  The  crash 
that  destroyed  their  national  prosperity  and  existence 
would  shake  the  most  solid  things  and  darken  the 
brightest.  It  would  come  suddenly,  as  if  the  sun 
plunged  from  the  zenith  to  the  west.  It  would  make 
joy  a  stranger,  and  bring  grief  as  bitter  as  when  a 
father  or  a  mother  mourns  the  death  of  an  only  son. 
Besides  all  this,  something  darker  beyond  is  dimly 
hinted  in  that  awful,  vague,  final  threat,  '  The  end 
thereof  as  a  bitter  day.' 

Now  all  these  threats  were  fulfilled  in  the  fall  of  the 
kingdom  of  Israel ;  but  that  '  day  of  the  Lord '  was  in 
principle  a  miniature  foreshadowing  of  the  great  final 
judgment.  Some  of  the  very  features  of  the  description 
here  are  repeated  with  reference  to  it  in  the  New  Testa- 
ment. We  cannot  treat  such  prophecies  as  this  as  if  they 
were  exhausted  by  their  historical  fulfilment.  They  dis- 
close the  eternal  course  of  divine  judgment,  which  is  to 
culminate  in  a  future  day  of  judgment.  The  oath  of 
God  is  not  yet  completely  fulfilled.  Assuredly  as  He 
lives  and  is  God,  so  surely  will  modern  sinners  have 
to  stand  their  trial ;  and,  as  of  old,  the  chase  after 
riches  will  bring  down  crashing  rain.  We  need  that 
vision  of  judgment  as  much  as  Samaria  did  when  Amos 
saw  the  basket  of  ripe  fruit,  craving,  as  it  were,  to  be 
plucked.     So  do  obstinate  sinners  invite  destruction. 

The  last  section  specifies  one  feature  of  judgment, 
the  deprivation  of  the  despised  word  of  the  Lord 
(vs.  11-14).  Like  Saul,  whose  piteous  wail  in  the  witch's 
hovel  was,  '  God  .  .  .  answereth  me  no  more,'  they  who 
paid  no  heed  to  the  word  of  the  Lord  shall  one  day  seek 
far  and  wearily  for  a  prophet,  and  seek  in  vain.    The 


T8. 1-14]        RIPE  FOR  GATHERING  175 

word  rendered  'wander,'  which  is  used  in  the  other 
description  of  people  seeking  for  water  in  a  literal 
drought  (iv.  8),  means  'reel,'  and  gives  the  picture  of 
men  faint  and  dizzy  with  thirst,  yet  staggering  on  in 
vain  quest  for  a  spring.  They  seek  everywhere,  from 
the  Dead  Sea  on  the  east  to  the  Mediterranean  on  the 
west,  and  then  up  to  the  north,  and  so  round  again  to 
the  starting-point.  Is  it  because  Judah  was  south  that 
that  quarter  is  not  visited  ?  Perhaps,  if  they  had  gone 
where  the  Temple  was,  they  would  have  found  the 
stream  from  under  its  threshold,  which  a  later  prophet 
saw  going  forth  to  heal  the  marshes  and  dry  places. 
Why  was  the  search  vain  ?  Has  not  God  promised  to 
be  found  of  those  that  seek,  however  far  they  have 
gone  away  ?  The  last  verse  tells  why.  They  still  were 
idolaters,  swearing  by  the  'sin  of  Samaria,'  which  is 
the  calf  of  Beth-el,  and  by  the  other  at  Dan,  and  going 
on  idolatrous  pilgrimages  to  Beer-sheba,  far  away  in 
the  south,  across  the  whole  kingdom  of  Judah  (Amos 
V.  5).  It  was  vain  to  seek  for  the  word  of  the  Lord 
with  such  doings  and  worship. 

The  truth  implied  is  universal  in  its  application. 
God's  message  neglected  is  withdrawn.  Conscience 
stops  if  continually  unheeded.  The  Gospel  may  still 
sound  in  a  man's  ears,  but  have  long  ceased  to  reach 
farther.  There  comes  a  time  when  men  shall  wish 
wasted  opportunities  back,  and  find  that  they  can  no 
more  return  than  last  summer's  heat.  There  may  be 
a  wish  for  the  prophet  in  time  of  distress,  which  means 
no  real  desire  for  God's  word,  but  only  for  relief  from 
calamity.  There  may  be  a  sort  of  seeking  for  the  word, 
which  seeks  in  the  wrong  places  and  in  the  wrong  ways, 
and  without  abandoning  sins.  Such  quest  is  vain.  But 
if,  driven  by  need  and  sorrow,  a  poor  soul,  feeling  the 


176  AMOS  [CH.  vm. 

thirst  after  the  living  God,  cries  from  ever  so  distant  a 
land  of  bondage,  the  cry  will  be  answered.  But  let  us 
not  forget  that  our  Lord  has  told  us  to  take  heed  how 
we  hear,  on  the  very  ground  that  '  to  him  that  hath 
shall  be  given ;  and  from  him  that  hath  not,  even  that 
he  hath  shall  be  taken  away.* 


JONAH 


GUILTY  SILENCE  AND  ITS  REWARD 

*  Now  the  word  of  the  Lord  came  unto  Jonah  the  son  of  Amittai,  saying,  2.  Arise, 
go  to  Nineveh,  that  great  city,  and  cry  against  it ;  for  their  -wickedness  is  come  up 
before  Me.  3.  But  Jonah  rose  up  to  flee  unto  Tarshish  from  the  presence  of  the 
Lord,  and  went  down  to  Joppa ;  and  he  found  a  ship  going  to  Tarshish  :  so  he  paid 
the  fare  thereof,  and  went  down  into  it,  to  go  with  them  unto  Tarshish  from  the 
presence  of  the  Lord.  4.  But  the  Lord  sent  out  a  great  wiud  into  the  sea,  and 
there  was  a  mighty  tempest  in  the  sea,  so  that  the  ship  was  like  to  he  broken. 
6.  Then  the  mariners  were  afraid,  and  cried  every  man  unto  his  god,  and  cast 
forth  the  wares  that  were  in  the  ship  into  the  sea,  to  lighten  it  of  them.  But 
Jonah  was  gone  down  into  the  sides  of  the  ship  ;  and  he  lay,  and  was  fast  asleep. 
6.  So  the  shipmaster  came  to  him,  and  said  unto  him.  What  meanest  thou,  O 
sleeper?  arise,  call  upon  thy  God,  if  so  be  that  God  will  think  upon  us,  that  we 
perish  not.  7.  And  they  said  every  one  to  his  fellow,  Come,  and  let  us  cast  lots, 
that  we  may  know  for  whose  cause  this  evil  is  upon  us.  So  they  cast  lots,  and  the 
lot  fell  upon  Jonah.  8.  Then  said  they  unto  him.  Tell  us,  we  pray  thee,  for  whose 
cause  this  evil  is  upon  us  ;  What  is  thine  occupation?  and  whence  comest  thou? 
what  is  thy  country?  and  of  what  people  art  thou?  9.  And  he  said  unto  them,  I 
am  an  Hebrew ;  and  I  fear  the  Lord,  the  God  of  heaven,  which  hath  made  the  sea 
and  the  dry  land.  10.  Then  were  the  men  exceedingly  afraid,  and  said  unto  him, 
Why  hast  thou  done  this?  For  the  men  knew  that  he  fled  from  the  presence  of 
the  Lord,  because  he  had  told  them.  11.  Then  said  they  unto  him.  What  shall  we 
do  unto  thee,  that  the  sea  may  be  calm  unto  us?  for  the  sea  wrought,  and  was 
tempestuous.  12.  And  he  said  unto  them.  Take  me  up,  and  cast  me  forth  into  the 
sea ;  so  shall  the  sea  be  calm  unto  you :  for  I  know  that  for  my  sake  this  great 
tempest  is  upon  you.  13.  Nevertheless  the  men  rowed  hard  to  bring  it  to  the  land ; 
but  they  could  not :  for  the  sea  wrought,  and  was  tempestuous  against  them. 
14.  Wherefore  they  cried  unto  the  Lord,  and  said.  We  beseech  thee,  O  Lord,  we 
beseech  thee,  let  us  not  perish  for  this  man's  life,  and  lay  not  upon  us  innocent 
blood :  for  Thou,  O  Lord,  hast  done  as  it  pleased  Thee.  15.  So  they  took  up  Jonah, 
and  cast  him  forth  into  the  sea ;  and  the  sea  ceased  from  her  raging.  16.  Then 
the  men  feared  the  Lord  exceedingly,  and  offered  a  sacrifice  unto  the  Lord,  and 
made  vows.  17.  Now  the  Lord  had  prepared  a  great  fish  to  swallow  up  Jonah. 
And  Jonah  was  in  the  belly  of  the  flsh  three  days  and  three  nights.'— Jonah  i.  1-17. 

Jonah  was  apparently  an  older  contemporary  of  Hosea 
and  Amos.  The  Assyrian  power  was  looming  threaten- 
ingly on  the  northern  horizon,  and  a  flash  or  two  had 
already  broken  from  that  cloud.  No  doubt  terror  had 
wrought  hate  and  intenser  narrowness.  To  correct 
these  by  teaching,  by  an  instance  drawn  from  Assyria 

M 


178  JONAH  [CH.  I. 

itself,  God's  care  for  the  Gentiles  and  their  suscepti- 
hility  to  His  voice,  was  the  purpose  of  Jonah's  mission. 
He  is  a  prophet  of  Israel,  because  the  lesson  of  his 
history  was  for  them,  though  his  message  was  for 
Nineveh.  He  first  taught  by  example  the  truth  which 
Jesus  proclaimed  in  the  synagogue  of  Nazareth,  and 
Peter  learned  on  the  housetop  at  Joppa,  and  Paul 
took  as  his  guiding  star.  A  truth  so  unwelcome  and 
remote  from  popular  belief  needed  emphasis  w^hen 
first  proclaimed;  and  this  singular  story,  as  it  w^ere, 
underlines  it  for  the  generation  which  heard  it  first. 
Its  place  would  rather  have  been  among  the  narratives 
than  the  prophets,  except  for  this  aspect  of  it.  So 
regarded,  Jonah  becomes  a  kind  of  representative  of 
Israel ;  and  his  history  sets  forth  large  lessons  as  to  its 
function  among  the  nations,  its  unwillingness  to  dis- 
charge it,  the  consequences  of  disobedience,  and  the 
means  of  return  to  a  better  mind. 

Note  then,  first,  the  Prophet's  unwelcome  charge. 
There  seems  no  sufficient  reason  for  doubting  the  his- 
torical reality  of  Jonah's  mission  to  Nineveh;  for  we 
know  that  intercourse  was  not  infrequent,  and  the 
silence  of  other  records  is,  in  their  fragmentary  condi- 
tion, nothing  wonderful.  But  the  fact  that  a  prophet 
of  Israel  was  sent  to  a  heathen  city,  and  that  not  to 
denounce  destruction  except  as  a  means  of  winning  to 
repentance,  declared  emphatically  God's  care  for  the 
world,  and  rebuked  the  exclusiveness  which  claimed 
Him  for  Israel  alone.  The  same  spirit  haunts  the 
Christian  Church,  and  we  have  all  need  to  ponder  the 
opposite  truth,  till  our  sympathies  are  widened  to 
the  width  of  God's  universal  love,  and  we  discern 
that  we  are  bound  to  care  for  all  men,  since  He 
does  so. 


vs.  1-17]  GUILTY  SILENCE  179 

Jonah  sullenly  resolved  not  to  obey  God's  voice. 
What  a  glimpse  into  the  prophetic  office  that  gives  us ! 
The  divine  Spirit  could  be  resisted,  and  the  Prophet 
was  no  mere  machine,  but  a  living  man  who  had  to 
consent  with  his  devoted  will  to  bear  the  burden  of  the 
Lord.  One  refused,  and  his  refusal  teaches  us  how 
superb  and  self-sacrificing  was  the  faithfulness  of  the 
rest.  So  we  have  each  to  do  in  regard  to  God's 
message  intrusted  to  us.  We  must  bow  our  wills, 
and  sink  our  prejudices,  and  sacrifice  our  tastes,  and 
say,  '  Here  am  I ;  send  me.' 

Jonah  represents  the  national  feelings  which  he 
shared.  Why  did  he  refuse  to  go  to  Nineveh?  Not 
because  he  was  afraid  of  his  life,  or  thought  the  task 
hopeless.  He  refused  because  he  feared  success.  God's 
goodness  was  being  stretched  rather  too  far,  if  it  was 
going  to  take  in  Nineveh.  Jonah  did  not  want  it  to 
escape.  If  he  had  been  sent  to  destroy  it,  he  would 
probably  have  gone  gladly.  He  grudged  that  heathen 
should  share  Israel's  privileges,  and  probably  thought 
that  gain  to  Nineveh  would  be  loss  to  Israel.  It 
was  exactly  the  spirit  of  the  prodigal's  elder  brother. 
There  was  also  working  in  him  the  concern  for  his 
own  reputation,  which  would  be  damaged  if  the  threats 
he  uttered  turned  out  to  be  thunder  without  lightning, 
by  reason  of  the  repentance  of  Nineveh. 

Israel  was  set  among  the  nations,  not  as  a  dark 
lantern,  but  as  the  great  lampstand  in  the  Temple 
court  proclaimed,  to  ray  out  light  to  all  the  world. 
Jonah's  mission  was  but  a  concrete  instance  of  Israel's 
charge.  The  nation  was  as  reluctant  to  fulfil  the  reason 
of  its  existence  as  the  Prophet  was.  Both  begrudged 
sharing  privileges  with  heathen  dogs,  both  thought 
God's    care    wasted,   and    neither   had    such   feelings 


180  JONAH  [CH.  I. 

towarJs  the  rest  of  the  world  as  to  be  willing  to  be 
messengers  of  forgiveness  to  them.  All  sorts  of 
religious  exclusiveness,  contemptuous  estimates  of 
other  nations,  and  that  bastard  patriotism  which 
would  keep  national  blessings  for  our  own  country 
alone,  are  condemned  by  this  story.  In  it  dawns  the 
first  faint  light  of  that  sun  which  shone  at  its  full 
when  Jesus  healed  the  Canaanite's  daughter,  or  when 
He  said,  '  Other  sheep  I  have,  which  are  not  of  this 
fold.' 

Note,  next,  the  fatal  consequences  of  refusal  to  obey 
the  God-given  charge.  We  need  not  suppose  that 
Jonah  thought  that  he  could  actually  get  away  from 
God's  presence.  Possibly  he  believed  in  a  special 
presence  of  God  in  the  land  of  Israel,  or,  more  pro- 
bably, the  phrase  means  to  escape  from  service.  At 
any  rate,  he  determined  to  do  his  flight  thoroughly. 
Tarshish  was,  to  a  Hebrew,  at  the  other  end  of  the 
world  from  Nineveh.  The  Jews  were  no  sailors,  and 
the  choice  of  the  sea  as  means  of  escape  indicates  the 
obstinacy  of  determination  in  Jonah. 

The  storm  is  described  with  a  profusion  of  unusual 
words,  all  apparently  technical  terms,  picked  up  on 
board,  just  as  Luke,  in  the  only  other  account  of  a 
storm  in  Scripture,  has  done.  What  a  difference 
between  the  two  voyages  !  In  the  one,  the  unfaithful 
prophet  is  the  cause  of  disaster,  and  the  only  sluggard 
in  the  ship.  In  the  other,  the  Apostle,  who  has  hazarded 
his  life  to  proclaim  his  Lord,  is  the  source  of  hope, 
courage,  vigour,  and  safety.  Such  are  the  consequences 
of  silence  and  of  brave  speech  for  God.  No  wonder  that 
the  fugitive  Prophet  slunk  down  into  some  dark  corner, 
and  sat  bitterly  brooding  there,  self-accused  and  con- 
demned, till  weariness  and  the  relief  of  the  tension  of 


vs.  1-17]  GUILTY  SILENCE  181 

his  journey  lulled  him  to  sleep.  It  was  a  stupid  and 
heavy  sleep.  Alas  for  those  whose  only  refuge  from 
conscience  is  oblivion ! 

Over  against  this  picture  of  the  insensible  Prophet, 
all  unaware  of  the  storm  (which  may  suggest  the 
parallel  insensibility  of  Israel  to  the  impending  divine 
judgments),  is  set  the  behaviour  of  the  heathen  sailors, 
or  'salts,'  as  the  story  calls  them.  Their  conduct  is 
part  of  the  lesson  of  the  book ;  for,  heathen  as  they 
are,  they  have  yet  a  sense  of  dependence,  and  they 
pray;  they  are  full  of  courage,  battling  with  the 
storm,  jettisoning  the  cargo,  and  doing  everything 
possible  to  save  the  ship.  Their  treatment  of  Jonah 
is  generous  and  chivalrous.  Even  when  they  hear  his 
crime,  and  know  that  the  storm  is  howling  like  a  wild 
beast  for  him,  they  are  unwilling  to  throw  him  over- 
board without  one  more  effort;  and  when  at  last  they  do 
it,  their  prayer  is  for  forgiveness,  inasmuch  as  they  are 
but  carrying  out  the  will  of  Jehovah.  They  are  so  much 
touched  by  the  whole  incident  that  they  offer  sacrifices 
to  the  God  of  the  Hebrews,  and  are,  in  some  sense,  and 
possibly  but  for  a  time,  worshippers  of  Him. 

All  this  holds  the  mirror  up  to  Israel,  by  showing 
how  much  of  human  kindness  and  generosity,  and  how 
much  of  susceptibility  for  the  truth  which  Israel  had  to 
declare,  lay  in  rude  hearts  beyond  its  pale.  This  crew 
of  heathen  of  various  nationalities  and  religions  were 
yet  men  who  could  be  kind  to  a  renegade  Prophet, 
peril  their  lives  to  save  his,  and  worship  Jehovah.  *  I 
have  not  found  so  great  faith,  no,  not  in  Israel,'  is  the 
same  lesson  in  another  form.  We  may  find  abundant 
opportunities  for  learning  it;  for  the  characters  of 
godless  men,  and  of  some  among  the  heathen,  may 
well  shame  many  a  Christian. 


182  JONAH  [CH.  I. 

Jonah's  conduct  in  the  storm  is  no  less  noble  than 
his  former  conduct  had  been  base.  The  burst  of  the 
tempest  blew  away  all  the  fog  from  his  mind,  and  he 
saw  the  stars  again.  His  confession  of  faith  ;  his  calm 
conviction  that  he  was  the  cause  of  the  stoiiu ;  his 
quiet,  unhesitating  command  to  throw  him  into  the 
wild  chaos  foaming  about  the  ship ;  his  willing  accept- 
ance of  death  as  the  wages  of  his  sin,  all  tell  how  true 
a  saint  he  was  in  the  depth  of  his  soul.  Sorrow  and 
chastisement  turn  up  the  subsoil.  If  a  man  has  any 
good  in  him,  it  generally  comes  to  the  top  when  he  is 
afflicted  and  looks  death  in  the  face.  If  there  is 
nothing  but  gravel  beneath,  it  too  will  be  brought  up 
by  the  plough.  There  may  be  much  selfish  unfaithful- 
ness overlying  a  real  devoted  heart. 

Jonah  represented  Israel  here  too,  both  in  that 
the  consequence  of  the  national  unfaithfulness  and 
greedy,  exclusive  grasp  of  their  privileges  would  lead 
to  their  being  cast  into  the  roaring  waves  of  the 
sea  of  nations,  amid  the  tumult  of  the  peoples,  and  in 
that,  for  them  as  for  him,  the  calamity  would  bring 
about  a  better  mind,  the  confession  of  their  faith,  and 
acknowledgment  of  their  sin.  The  history  of  Israel 
was  typified  in  this  history,  and  the  lessons  it  teaches 
are  lessons  for  all  churches,  and  for  all  God's  children 
for  all  time.  If  we  shirk  our  duty  of  witnessing  for 
Him,  or  any  other  of  His  plain  commands,  unfaithful- 
ness will  be  our  ruin.  The  storm  is  sure  to  break 
where  His  Jonahs  try  to  hide,  and  their  only  hope  lies 
in  bowing  to  the  chastisement  and  consenting  to  be 
punished,  and  avowing  whose  they  are  and  whom  they 
serve.  If  we  own  Him  while  the  storm  whistles  round 
us,  the  worst  of  it  is  past,  and  though  we  have  to 
struggle  amid  its  waves,  He  will  take  care  of  us,  and 


vs.  1-17]  GUILTY  SILENCE  183 

anything  is  possible  rather  than  that  we  should  be  lost 
in  them. 

The  miracle  of  rescue  is  the  last  point.  Jonah's 
repentance  saved  his  life.  Tossed  overboard  impeni- 
tent he  would  have  been  drowned.  So  Israel  was 
taught  that  the  break-up  of  their  national  life  would 
not  be  their  destruction  if  they  turned  to  the  Lord  in 
their  calamity.  The  wider  lesson  of  the  means  of 
making  chastisement  into  blessing,  and  securing  a 
way  of  escape — namely,  by  owning  the  justice  of  the 
stroke,  and  returning  to  duty — is  meant  for  us  all. 
He  who  sends  the  storm  watches  its  effect  on  us,  and 
will  not  let  His  repentant  servants  be  utterly  over- 
whelmed. That  is  a  better  use  to  make  of  the  story 
than  to  discuss  whether  any  kind  of  known  Medi- 
terranean fish  could  swallow  a  man.  If  we  believe  in 
miracles,  the  question  need  not  trouble  us.  And 
miracle  there  must  be,  not  only  in  the  coincidence  of 
the  fish  and  the  Prophet  being  in  the  same  bit  of  sea  at 
the  same  moment,  but  in  his  living  for  so  long  in  his 
strange  '  ark  of  safety.' 

The  ever-present  providence  of  God,  the  possible 
safety  of  the  nation,  even  when  in  captivity,  the  pre- 
servation of  every  servant  of  God  who  turns  to  the 
Lord  in  his  chastisement,  the  exhibition  of  penitence  as 
the  way  of  deliverance,  are  the  purposes  for  which  the 
miracle  was  wrought  and  told.  Flippant  sarcasms  are 
cheap.  A  devout  insight  yields  a  worthy  meaning. 
Jesus  Christ  employed  this  incident  as  a  symbol  of  His 
Death  and  Resurrection.  That  use  of  it  seems  hard  to 
reconcile  with  any  view  but  that  the  story  is  true. 
But  it  does  not  seem  necessary  to  suppose  that  our 
Lord  regarded  it  as  an  intended  type,  or  to  seek  to  find 
in  Jonah's  history  further  typical  prophecy  of  Him, 


184  JONAH  [OH.  iL 

The  salient  point  of  comparison  is  simply  the  three 
days'  entombment;  and  it  is  rather  an  illustrative 
analogy  than  an  intentional  prophecy.  The  subsequent 
action  of  the  Prophet  in  Nineveh,  and  the  effect  of  it, 
were  true  types  of  the  preaching  of  the  Gospel  by  the 
risen  Lord,  through  His  servants,  to  the  Gentiles,  and 
of  their  hearing  the  Word.  But  it  requires  consider- 
able violence  in  manipulation  to  force  the  bestowing 
of  Jonah,  for  safety  and  escape  from  death,  in  the  fish's 
maw,  into  a  proper  prophecy  of  the  transcendent  fact 
of  the  Resurrection. 


•LYING  VANITIES' 

•They  that  observe  lying  vanities  forsake  their  own  mercy.'— Jonah  iL  8. 

Jonah's  refusal  to  obey  the  divine  command  to  go  to 
Nineveh  and  cry  against  it  is  best  taken,  not  as  prosaic 
history,  but  as  a  poetical  representation  of  Israel's 
failure  to  obey  the  divine  call  of  witnessing  for  God. 
In  like  manner,  his  being  cast  into  the  sea  and 
swallowed  by  the  great  fish,  is  a  poetic  reproduction, 
for  homiletical  purposes,  of  Israel's  sufferings  at  the 
hands  of  the  heathen  whom  it  had  failed  to  warn. 
The  song  which  is  put  into  Jonah's  mouth  when  in  the 
fish's  belly,  of  which  our  text  is  a  fragment,  represents 
the  result  on  the  part  of  the  nation  of  these  hard 
experiences.  'Lying  vanities'  mean  idols,  and  'their 
own  mercy '  means  God.  The  text  is  a  brief,  pregnant 
utterance  of  the  great  truth  which  had  been  forced 
home  to  Israel  by  sufferings  and  exile,  that  to  turn 
from  Jehovah  to  false  gods  was  to  turn  from  the  sure 
source  of  tender  care  to  lies  and  emptiness.  That  is  but 
one  case  of  the  wider  truth  that  an  ungodly  life  is  the 
acme  of  stupidity,  a  tragic  mistake,  as  well  as  a  great  sin. 


T.  8]  « LYING  VANITIES  '  185 

In  confirmation  and  enforcement  of  our  text  we  may 
consider : — 

I.  The  illusory  vanity  of  the  objects  pursued. 

The  Old  Testament  tone  of  reference  to  idols  is 
one  of  bitter  contempt.  Its  rigid  monotheism  was 
intensified  and  embittered  by  the  universal  preval- 
ence of  idolatry;  and  there  is  a  certain  hardness  in 
its  tone  in  reference  to  the  gods  of  the  nations  round 
about,  which  has  little  room  for  pity,  and  finds  expres- 
sion in  such  names  as  those  of  our  text — 'vanities,' 
'  lies,'  *  nothingness,'  and  the  like.  To  the  Jew,  encom- 
passed on  all  sides  by  idol-worshippers,  the  alternative 
was  vehement  indignation  or  entire  surrender.  The 
Mohammedan  in  British  India  exhibits  much  the  same 
attitude  to  Yishnu  and  Siva  as  the  Jew  did  to  Baal  and 
Ashtoreth.  It  is  easy  to  be  tolerant  of  dead  gods,  but  it 
becomes  treason  to  Jehovah  to  parley  with  them  when 
they  are  alive. 

But  the  point  which  we  desire  to  insist  upon  here  is 
somewhat  wider  than  the  vanity  of  idols.  It  is  the 
emptiness  of  all  objects  of  human  pursuit  apart  from 
God.  These  last  three  words  need  to  be  made  very 
prominent;  for  in  itself  'every  creature  of  God  is 
good,'  and  the  emptiness  does  not  inhere  in  them- 
selves, but  first  appears  when  they  are  set  in  His 
place.  He,  and  only  He,  can,  and  does,  satisfy  the 
whole  nature — is  authority  for  the  will,  peace  for  the 
conscience,  love  for  the  heart,  light  for  the  under- 
standing, rest  for  all  seeking.  He,  and  He  alone,  can 
fill  the  past  with  the  light  in  which  is  no  regret,  the 
present  with  a  satisfaction  rounded  and  complete,  the 
future  with  a  hope  certain  as  experience,  to  which 
we  shall  ever  approximate,  and  which  we  can  never 
exhaust  and  outgrow.    Any,  or  all,  the  other  objects 


186  JONAH  [CH.  n. 

of  human  endeavour  may  be  won,  and  yet  we  may  be 
miserable.  The  inadequacy  of  all  these  ought  to  be 
pressed  home  upon  us  more  than  it  is,  not  only  by 
their  limitations  whilst  they  last,  but  by  the  tran- 
siency of  them  all.  '  The  fashion  of  this  world  passeth 
away,'  as  the  Aj)ostle  John  puts  it,  in  a  forcible  ex- 
pression which  likens  all  this  frame  of  things  to  a 
panorama  being  unwound  from  one  roller  and  on  to 
another.  The  painted  screen  is  but  paint  at  the  best, 
and  is  in  perpetual  motion,  which  is  not  arrested  by  the 
vain  clutches  of  hands  that  would  fain  stop  the  irresist- 
ible and  tragic  gliding  past. 

These  vanities  are  '  lying  vanities.'  There  is  only  one 
aim  of  life  which,  being  pursued  and  attained,  fulfils 
the  promises  by  which  it  drew  man  after  it.  It  is  a 
bald  commonplace,  reiterated  not  only  by  preachers 
but  by  moralists  of  every  kind,  and  confirmed  by 
universal  experience,  that  a  hope  fulfilled  is  a  hope 
disappointed.  There  is  only  one  thing  more  tragic 
than  a  life  which  has  failed  in  its  aims,  and  it  is  a 
life  which  has  perfectly  succeeded  in  them,  and  has 
found  that  what  promised  to  be  bread  turns  to  ashes. 
The  word  of  promise  may  be  kept  to  the  ear,  but  is 
always  broken  to  the  hope.  Many  a  millionaire  loses 
the  power  to  enjoy  his  millions  by  the  very  process 
by  which  he  gains  them.  The  old  Jewish  thinker 
was  wise  not  only  in  taking  as  the  summing  up  of 
all  worldly  pursuits  the  sad  sentence,  'AH  is  vanity,' 
but  in  putting  it  into  the  lips  of  a  king  who  had  won 
all  he  sought.  The  sorceress  draws  us  within  her 
charmed  circle  by  lying  words  and  illusory  charms, 
and  when  she  has  so  secured  the  captives,  her 
mask  is  thrown  off  and  her  native  hideousness  dis- 
played. 


V.8]  'LYING  VANITIES*  187 

II.  The  hard  service  which  lying  vanities  require. 

The  phrase  in  our  text  is  a  quotation,  slightly 
altered,  from  Psalm  xxxi.  6 :  '  I  hate  them  that  regard 
lying  vanities;  but  I  trust  in  the  Lord.'  The  altera- 
tion in  the  form  of  the  verb  as  it  occurs  in  Jonah 
expresses  the  intensity  of  regard,  and  gives  the  picture 
of  watching  with  anxious  solicitude,  as  the  eyes  of  a 
servant  turned  to  his  master,  or  those  of  a  dog  to  its 
owner.  The  world  is  a  very  hard  master,  and  requires 
from  its  servants  the  concentration  of  thought,  heart, 
and  effort.  We  need  only  recall  the  thousand  sermons 
devoted  to  the  enforcement  of  '  the  gospel  of  getting 
on,'  which  prosperous  worldlings  are  continually  preach- 
ing. A  chorus  of  voices  on  every  side  of  us  is  dinning 
into  the  ears  of  every  young  man  and  woman  the 
necessity  for  success  in  life's  struggle  of  taking  for  a 
motto,  '  This  one  thing  I  do.'  How  many  a  man  is 
there,  who  in  the  race  after  wealth  or  fame,  has  flung 
away  aspirations,  visions  of  noble,  truthful  love  to  life, 
and  a  hundred  other  precious  things  ?  Browning  tells  a 
hideous  story  of  a  mother  flinging,  one  after  another, 
her  infants  to  the  wolves  as  she  urged  her  sledge  over 
the  snowy  plain.  No  less  hideous,  and  still  more  maim- 
ing, are  the  surrenders  that  men  make  when  once  their 
hearts  have  been  filled  with  the  foolish  ambitions  of 
worldly  success.  Let  us  fix  it  in  our  minds,  that 
nothing  that  time  and  sense  can  give  is  worth  the 
price  that  it  exacts. 

'  It  is  only  heaven  that  can  be  had  for  the  asking; 
It  is  only  God  that  is  given  away.' 

All  sin  is  slavery.  Its  yoke  presses  painfully  on  the 
neck,  and  its  burden  is  heavy  indeed,  and  the  rest  which 
it  promises  never  comes. 


188  JONAH  [OH.  II. 

III.  The  self-inflicted  loss. 

Our  text  suggests  that  there  are  two  ways  by  which 
we  may  learn  the  folly  of  a  godless  life — One,  the  con- 
sideration of  what  it  turns  to,  the  other,  the  thought 
of  what  it  departs  from. 

♦They  forsake  their  own  Mercy,'  that  is  God.  The 
phrase  is  here  almost  equivalent  to  '  His  name ' ;  and  it 
carries  the  blessed  thought  that  He  has  entered  into  re- 
lations with  every  soul,  so  that  each  man  of  us — even  if 
he  have  turned  to  '  lying  vanities ' — can  still  call  Him, 
'my  own  Mercy.'  He  is  ours;  more  our  own  than  is 
anything  without  us.  He  is  ours,  because  we  are  made 
for  Him,  and  He  is  all  for  us.  He  is  ours  by  His  love, 
and  by  His  gift  of  Himself  in  the  Son  of  His  love.  He  is 
ours ;  if  we  take  Him  for  ours  by  an  inward  communi- 
cation of  Himself  to  us  in  the  innermost  depths  of 
our  being.  He  becomes  'the  Master-Light  of  all  our 
seeing.'  In  the  mysterious  inwardness  of  mutual 
possession,  the  soul  which  has  given  itself  to  God  and 
possesses  Him,  has  not  only  communion,  but  may 
even  venture  to  claim  as  its  own  the  deeper  and  more 
mysterious  union  with  God.  Those  multiform  mercies, 
•which  endure  for  ever,'  and  speed  on  their  manifold 
errands  into  every  remotest  region  of  His  universe, 
gather  themselves  together,  as  the  diffused  lights  of 
some  nebulsB  concentrate  themselves  into  a  sun.  That 
sun,  like  the  star  that  led  the  wise  men  from  the  East, 
and  finally  stood  over  one  poor  house  in  an  obscure 
village,  will  shine  lambent  above,  and  will  pass  into, 
the  humblest  heart  that  opens  for  it.  They  who  can 
say,  as  we  all  can  if  we  will,  'My  God,'  can  never 
want. 

And  if  we  turn  to  the  alternative  in  our  text,  and 
consider  who  they  are  to  whom  we  turn  when  we 


T.8]        THREEFOLD  REPENTANCE        189 

turn  from  God,  there  should  be  nothing  more  needed 
to  drive  home  the  wholesome  conviction  of  the  folly 
of  the  wisest,  who  deliberately  prefers  shadow  to  sub- 
stance, lying  vanities  to  the  one  true  and  only  reality. 
I  beseech  you  to  take  that  which  is  your  own,  and 
which  no  man  can  take  from  you.  Weigh  in  the 
scales  of  conscience,  and  in  the  light  of  the  deepest 
necessities  of  your  nature,  the  whole  pile  of  those 
emptinesses  that  have  been  telling  you  lies  ever  since 
you  listened  to  them ;  and  place  in  the  other  scale  the 
mercy  of  God,  and  the  Christ  who  brings  it  to  you,  and 
decide  which  is  the  weightier,  and  which  it  becomes  you 
to  take  for  your  pattern  for  ever. 


THREEFOLD  REPENTANCE 

'And  the  •word  of  the  Lord  came  unto  Jonah  the  second  time,  saying,  2.  Arise, 
go  unto  Nineveh,  that  great  city,  and  preach  unto  it  the  preaching  that  I  bid  thee. 
3.  So  Jonah  arose,  and  went  unto  Nineveh,  according  to  the  word  of  the  Lord.  Now 
Nineveh  was  an  exceeding  great  city  of  three  days' journey.  4.  And  Jonah  began 
to  enter  into  the  city  a  day's  journey,  and  he  cried,  and  said,  Yet  forty  days,  and 
Nineveh  shall  be  overthrown.  5.  So  the  people  of  Nineveh  believed  God,  and  pro- 
claimed a  fast,  and  put  on  sackcloth,  from  the  greatest  of  them  even  to  the  least 
of  them.  6.  For  word  came  unto  the  king  of  Nineveh,  and  he  arose  from  his 
throne,  and  he  laid  his  robe  from  him,  and  covered  him  with  sackcloth,  and  sat  In 
ashes.  7.  And  he  caused  it  to  be  proclaimed  and  published  through  Nineveh  by 
the  decree  of  the  king  and  his  nobles,  saying.  Let  neither  man  nor  beast,  herd  nor 
flock,  taste  anything ;  let  them  not  feed,  nor  drink  water :  8.  But  let  man  and 
beast  be  covered  with  sackcloth,  and  cry  mightily  unto  God ;  yea,  let  them  turn 
every  one  from  his  evil  way,  and  from  the  violence  that  is  in  their  hands.  9.  Who 
can  tell  if  God  will  turn  and  repent,  and  turn  away  from  His  fierce  anger,  that  we 
perish  not?  10.  And  God  saw  their  works,  that  they  turned  from  their  evil  way; 
and  God  repented  of  the  evil,  that  He  had  said  that  He  would  do  unto  them ;  and 
He  did  it  not.'— Jonah  iii.  1-10. 

This  passage  falls  into  three  parts :  Jonah's  renewed 
commission  and  new  obedience  (vs.  1-4),  the  repentance 
of  Nineveh  (vs.  5-9),  and  the  acceptance  thereof  by  God 
(ver.  10).  We  might  almost  call  these  three  the  repent- 
ance of  Jonah,  of  Nineveh,  and  of  God.  The  evident 
intention  of  the  narrative  is  to  parallel  the  Ninevites 


190  JONAH  [CH.  m. 

turning  from  their  sins,  and  God's  turning  from  Hia 
anger  and  purpose  of  destruction ;  and  if  the  word 
'  repentance  '  is  not  applied  to  Jonah,  his  conduct  suffi- 
ciently shows  the  thing. 

I.  Note  the  renewed  charge  to  the  penitent  Prophet, 
and  his  new  eagerness  to  fulfil  it.  His  deliverance  and 
second  commission  are  put  as  if  all  but  simultaneous, 
and  his  obedience  was  swift  and  glad.  Jonah  did  not 
venture  to  take  for  granted  that  the  charge  which  he 
had  shirked  was  still  continued  to  him.  If  God  com- 
mands to  take  the  trumpet,  and  we  refuse,  we  dare  not 
assume  that  we  shall  still  be  honoured  with  the  delivery 
of  the  message.  The  punishment  of  dumb  lips  is  often 
dumbness.  Opportunities  of  service,  slothf  ully  or  faint- 
heartedly neglected,  are  often  withdrawn.  We  can 
fancy  how  Jonah,  brought  back  to  the  better  mind 
which  breathes  in  his  psalm,  longed  to  be  honoured  by 
the  trust  of  preaching  once  more,  and  how  rapturously 
his  spirit  would  address  itself  to  the  task.  Duties 
once  unwelcome  become  sweet  when  we  have  passed 
through  the  experience  of  the  misery  that  comes 
from  neglecting  them.  It  is  God's  mercy  that  gives 
us  the  opportunity  of  effacing  past  disobedience  by 
new  alacrity. 

The  second  charge  is  possibly  distinguishable  from 
the  first  as  being  less  precise.  It  may  be  that  the  exact 
nature  of  *  the  preaching  that  I  bid  thee'  was  not  told 
Jonah  till  he  had  to  open  his  mouth  in  Nineveh ;  but, 
more  probably,  the  second  charge  was  identical  with 
the  first. 

The  word  rendered  '  preach '  is  instructive.  It  means 
*  to  cry,'  and  suggests  the  manner  befitting  those  who 
bear  God's  message.  They  should  sound  it  out  loudly, 
plainly,  urgently,  with  earnestness  and  marks  of  emo- 


▼8.1-10]  THREEFOLD  REPENTANCE    191 

tion  in  their  voice.  Languid  whispers  will  not  wake 
sleepers.  Unless  the  messenger  is  manifestly  in  earnest, 
the  message  will  fall  flat.  Not  with  bated  breath,  as  if 
ashamed  of  it ;  nor  with  hesitation,  as  if  not  quite  sure 
of  it ;  nor  with  coldness,  as  if  it  were  of  little  urgency, 
— is  God's  Word  to  be  pealed  in  men's  ears.  The 
preacher  is  a  crier.  The  substance  of  his  message,  too, 
is  set  forth.  'The  preaching  which  I  bid  thee ' — not  his 
own  imaginations,  nor  any  fine  things  of  his  own 
spinning.  Suppose  Jonah  had  entertained  the  Nine- 
vites  with  dissertations  on  the  evidences  of  his  pro- 
phetic authority,  or  submitted  for  their  consideration 
a  few  thoughts  tending  to  show  the  agreement  of  his 
message  with  their  current  opinions  in  religion,  or  an 
argument  for  the  existence  of  a  retributive  Governor 
of  the  world,  he  would  not  have  shaken  the  city.  The 
less  the  Prophet  shows  himself,  the  stronger  his  influ- 
ence. The  more  simply  he  repeats  the  stern,  plain,  short 
message,  the  more  likely  it  is  to  impress.  God's  Word, 
faithfully  set  forth,  will  prove  itself.  The  preacher  or 
teacher  of  this  day  has  substantially  the  same  charge 
as  Jonah  had ;  and  the  more  he  suppresses  himself, 
and  becomes  but  a  voice  through  which  God  speaks, 
the  better  for  himself,  his  hearers,  and  his  work. 

Nineveh,  that  great  aggregate  of  cities,  was  full,  as 
Eastern  cities  are,  of  open  spaces,  and  might  well  be 
a  three  days'  journey  in  circumference.  What  a  task 
for  that  solitary  stranger  to  thunder  out  his  loud  cry 
among  all  these  crowds!  But  he  had  learned  to  do 
what  he  was  bid ;  and  without  wasting  a  moment,  he 
•  began  to  enter  into  the  city  a  day's  journey,'  and,  no 
doubt,  did  not  wait  till  the  end  of  the  day  to  proclaim 
his  message.  Let  us  learn  that  there  is  an  element  of 
threatening  in  God's  most  merciful  message,  and  that 


192  JONAH  [CH.  III. 

the  appeal  to  terror  and  to  the  desire  for  self-preserva- 
tion is  part  of  the  way  to  preach  the  Gospel.  Plain 
warnings  of  coming  evil  may  be  spoken  tenderly,  and 
reveal  love  as  truly  as  the  most  soothing  words.  The 
warning  comes  in  time.  *  Forty  days '  of  grace  are 
granted.  The  gospel  warns  us  in  time  enough  for 
escape.  It  warns  us  because  God  loves ;  and  they  are 
as  untrue  messengers  of  His  love  as  of  His  justice  who 
slur  over  the  declaration  of  His  wrath. 

II.  Note  the  repentance  of  Nineveh  (vs.  5-9).  The 
impression  made  by  Jonah's  terrible  cry  is  perfectly 
credible  and  natural  in  the  excitable  population  of  an 
Eastern  city,  in  which  even  now  any  appeal  to  terror, 
especially  if  associated  with  religious  and  prophetic 
claims,  easily  sets  the  whole  in  a  frenzy.  Think  of  the 
grim  figure  of  this  foreign  man,  with  his  piercing  voice 
and  half -intelligible  speech,  dropped  from  the  clouds  as 
it  were,  and  stalking  through  Nineveh,  pealing  out  his 
confident  message,  like  that  gaunt  fanatic  who  walked 
Jerusalem  in  its  last  agony,  crying,  'Woe!  woe  unto 
the  bloody  city ! '  or  that  other,  who,  with  flaming  fire 
on  his  head  and  madness  in  his  eyes,  affrighted  London 
in  the  plague.  No  wonder  that  alarm  was  kindled,  and, 
being  kindled,  spread  like  wildfire.  Apparently  the 
movement  was  first  among  the  people,  who  began  to 
fast  before  the  news  penetrated  to  the  seclusion  of  the 
palace.  But  the  contagion  reached  the  king,  and  the 
popular  excitement  was  endorsed  and  fanned  by  a 
royal  decree.  The  specified  tokens  of  repentance  are 
those  of  ordinary  mourning,  such  as  were  common 
all  over  the  East,  with  only  the  strange  addition,  which 
smacks  of  heathen  ideas,  that  the  animals  were  made 
sharers  in  them. 

There  is  great  significance  in  that  'believed  God* 


vs.  1-10]    THREEFOLD  REPENTANCE       193 

(ver.  5).  The  foundation  of  all  true  repentance  is  credit- 
ing God's  word  of  threatening,  and  therefore  realising 
the  danger,  as  well  as  the  disobedience,  of  our  sin.  "We 
shall  be  wise  if  we  pass  by  the  human  instrument,  and 
hear  God  speaking  through  the  Prophet.  Never  mind 
about  Jonah,  believe  God, 

We  learn  from  the  Ninevites  what  is  true  repentance. 
They  brought  no  sacrifices  or  offerings,  but  sorrow,  self- 
abasement,  and  amendment.  The  characteristic  sin  of 
a  great  military  power  would  be  '  violence,'  and  that  is 
the  specific  evil  from  which  they  vow  to  turn.  The 
loftiest  lesson  which  prophets  found  Israel  so  slow  to 
learn,  •  A  broken  and  a  contrite  heart  Thou  wilt  not 
despise,'  was  learned  by  these  heathens.  We  need  it 
no  less.  Nineveh  repented  on  a  peradventure  that 
their  repentance  might  avail.  How  pathetic  that 
'  Who  can  tell  ? '  (ver.  9)  is !  We  know  what  they  hoped. 
Their  doubt  might  give  fervour  to  their  cries,  but  our 
certainty  should  give  deeper  earnestness  and  confidence 
to  ours. 

The  deepest  meaning  of  the  whole  narrative  is  set 
forth  in  our  Lord's  use  of  it,  when  He  holds  up  the 
men  of  Nineveh  as  a  condemnatory  instance  to  the 
hardened  consciences  of  His  hearers.  Probably  the 
very  purpose  of  the  book  was  to  show  Israel  that  the 
despised  and  yet  dreaded  heathen  were  more  suscep- 
tible to  the  voice  of  God  than  they  were:  *  I  will  pro- 
voke you  to  jealousy  by  them  which  are  no  people.' 
The  story  was  a  smiting  blow  to  the  proud  exclusive- 
ness  and  self-complacent  contempt  of  prophetic  warn- 
ings, which  marked  the  entire  history  of  God's  people. 
As  Ezekiel  was  told :  '  Thou  are  not  sent  ...  to  many 
peoples  of  a  strange  speech  and  of  an  hard  language. 
,  .  .  Surely,  if  I  sent  thee  to  them,  they  would  hearken 

N 


194  JONAH  [CH.III. 

unto  thee.  But  the  house  of  Israel  will  not  hearken 
unto  thee.'  It  is  ever  true  that  long  familiarity 
with  the  solemn  thoughts  of  God's  judgment  and 
punishment  of  sin  abates  their  impression  on  us.  Our 
Puritan  forefathers  used  to  talk  about '  gospel-hardened 
sinners,'  and  there  are  many  such  among  us.  The  man 
who  lives  by  Niagara  does  not  hear  its  roar  as  a  stranger 
does.  The  men  of  Nineveh  will  rise  in  the  judgment 
with  other  generations  than  that  which  was  '  this 
generation'  in  Christ's  time;  and  that  which  is  'this 
generation'  to-day  will,  in  many  of  its  members,  be 
condemned  by  them. 

But  the  wave  of  feeling  soon  retired,  and  there  is  no 
reason  to  believe  that  more  than  a  transient  impres- 
sion was  made.  It  does  not  seem  certain  that  the 
Ninevites  knew  what  'God'  they  hoped  to  appease. 
Probably  their  pantheon  was  undisturbed,  and  their 
repentance  lasted  no  longer  than  their  fear.  Transient 
repentance  leaves  the  heart  harder  than  before,  as  half- 
melted  ice  freezes  again  more  dense.  Let  us  beware 
of  frost  on  the  back  of  a  thaw.  '  Repentance  which  is 
repented  of  is  worse  than  none. 

III.  We  note  the  repentance  of  God  (ver.  10).  Mark 
the  recurrence  of  the  word  '  turn,'  employed  in  verses 
8,  9,  and  10  in  reference  to  men  and  to  God.  Mark 
the  bold  use  of  the  word  'repent,'  applied  to  God, 
which,  though  it  be  not  applied  to  the  Ninevites  in 
the  previous  verses,  is  implied  in  every  line  of  them. 
The  same  expression  is  found  in  Exodus  xxxii.  14, 
which  may  be  taken  as  the  classical  passage  warrant- 
ing its  use.  The  great  truth  involved  is  one  that  is  too 
often  lost  sight  of  in  dealing  with  prophecy ;  namely, 
that  all  God's  promises  and  threatenings  are  condi- 
tional.   Jeremiah  learned  that  lesson  in  the  house  of 


vs.  1-10]    THREEFOLD  REPENTANCE       195 

the  potter,  and  we  need  to  keep  it  well  in  mind.  God 
threatens,  precisely  in  order  that  He  may  not  have  to 
perform  His  threatenings.  Jonah  was  sent  to  Nineveh 
to  cry,  'Yet  forty  days,  and  Nineveh  shall  be  over- 
thrown,' in  order  that  it  might  not  be  overthrown. 
What  would  have  been  the  use  of  proclaiming  the 
decree,  if  it  had  been  irreversible  ?  There  is  an  implied 
*  if '  in  all  God's  words.  '  Except  ye  repent '  underlies 
the  most  absolute  threatenings  of  evil.  '  If  we  hold 
fast  the  beginning  of  our  confidence  firm  unto  the 
end,'  is  presupposed  in  the  brightest  and  broadest 
promises  of  good. 

The  word  'repent'  is  denied  and  affirmed  to  have 
application  to  God.  He  is  not  '  a  son  of  man,  that  He 
should  repent,'  inasmuch  as  His  immutability  and  stead- 
fast purpose  know  no  variableness.  But  just  because 
they  cannot  change,  and  He  must  ever  be  against  them 
that  do  evil,  and  ever  bless  them  that  turn  to  Him 
with  trust,  therefore  He  changes  His  dealings  with  us 
according  to  our  relation  to  Him,  and  because  He 
cannot  repent,  or  be  other  than  He  was  and  is,  're^ 
pents  of  the  evil  that  He  had  said  that  He  would  do ' 
unto  sinners  when  they  repent  of  the  evil  that  they 
have  done  against  Him,  inasmuch  as  He  leaves  His 
threatening  unfulfilled,  and  '  does  it  not.' 

So  we  might  almost  say  that  the  purpose  of  this 
book  of  Jonah  is  to  teach  the  possibility  and  efficacy 
of  repentance,  and  to  show  how  the  penitent  man, 
heathen  or  Jew,  ever  finds  in  God  changed  dealings 
corresponding  to  his  changed  heart.  The  widest 
charity,  the  humbling  lesson  for  people  brought  up 
in  the  blaze  of  revelation,  that  dwellers  in  the  twilight 
or  in  the  darkness  are  dear  to  God  and  may  be  more 
susceptible  of  divine  impressions  than  ourselves,  the 


195  JONAH  [CH.  III. 

rebuke  of  all  pluming  ourselves  on  our  privileges,  the 
boundlessness  of  God's  mercy,  are  among  the  other 
lessons  of  this  strange  book  ;  but  none  of  them  is  more 
precious  than  its  truly  evangelic  teaching  of  the  blessed- 
ness of  true  penitence,  whether  exemplified  in  the 
renegade  Prophet  returning  to  his  high  mission,  or 
the  fierce  Ninevites  humbled  and  repentant,  and  find- 
ing mercy  from  the  God  of  the  whole  earth. 


^i^^ 


MICAH 

IS  THE  SPIRIT  OF  THE  LORD  STRAITENED? 

'O  tbou  that  art  named  the  house  of  Jacob,  is  the  Spirit  of  the  Lord  straitened? 
Are  these  His  doings  ? '— Mioah  iL  7. 

The  greater  part  of  so-called  Christendom  is  to- 
day^ celebrating  the  gift  of  a  Divine  Spirit  to  the 
Church ;  but  it  may  well  be  asked  whether  the  religious 
condition  of  so-called  Christendom  is  not  a  sad  satire 
upon  Pentecost.  There  seems  a  woful  contrast,  very 
perplexing  to  faith,  between  the  bright  promise  at 
the  beginning  and  the  history  of  the  development  in 
the  future.  How  few  of  those  who  share  in  to-day's 
services  have  any  personal  experience  of  such  a  gift! 
How  many  seem  to  think  that  that  old  story  is  only 
the  record  of  a  past  event,  a  transient  miracle  which 
has  no  kind  of  relation  to  the  experience  of  the 
Christians  of  this  day !  There  were  a  handful  of  be- 
lievers in  one  of  the  towns  of  Asia  Minor,  to  whom 
an  Apostle  came,  and  was  so  startled  at  their  con- 
dition that  he  put  to  them  in  wonder  the  question 
that  might  well  be  put  to  multitudes  of  so-called 
Christians  amongst  us:  'Did  you  receive  the  Holy 
Ghost  when  you  believed  ? '  And  their  answer  is  only 
too  true  a  transcript  of  the  experience  of  large  masses 
of  people  who  call  themselves  Christians:  'We  have 
not  so  much  as  heard  whether  there  be  any  Holy 
Ghost.' 
I  desire,  then,  dear  brethren,  to  avail  myself  of  this 

1  Whitsunday. 

197 


198  MICAH  [CH.  n. 

day's  associations  in  order  to  press  upon  your  con- 
sciences and  upon  my  own  some  considerations  natur- 
ally suggested  by  them,  and  which  find  voice  in  those 
two  indignant  questions  of  the  old  Prophet : — *  Is  the 
Spirit  of  the  Lord  straitened  ? '  '  Are  these ' — the  pheno- 
mena of  existing  popular  Christianity — 'are  these  His 
doings  ? '  And  if  we  are  brought  sharp  up  against  the 
consciousness  of  a  dreadful  contrast,  it  may  do  us  good 
to  ask  what  is  the  explanation  of  so  cloudy  a  day 
following  a  morning  so  bright. 

I.  First,  then,  I  have  to  ask  you  to  think  with  me  of 
the  promise  of  the  Pentecost. 

What  did  it  declare  and  hold  forth  for  the  faith  of 
the  Church?  I  need  not  dwell  at  any  length  upon 
this  point.  The  facts  are  familiar  to  you,  and  the  in- 
ferences drawn  from  them  are  commonplace  and 
known  to  us  all.  But  let  me  just  enumerate  them 
as  briefly  as  may  be. 

'  Suddenly  there  came  a  sound,  as  of  the  rushing  of 
a  mighty  wind,  and  it  filled  all  the  house  where  they 
were  sitting.  And  there  appeared  cloven  tongues  as  of 
fire,  and  it  sat  upon  each  of  them ;  and  they  were  all 
filled  with  the  Holy  Ghost.' 

What  lay  in  that?  First,  the  promise  of  a  Divine 
Spirit  by  symbols  which  express  some,  at  all  events,  of 
the  characteristics  and  wonderfulness  of  His  work. 
The  'rushing  of  a  mighty  wind'  spoke  of  a  power 
which  varies  in  its  manifestations  from  the  gentlest 
breath  that  scarce  moves  the  leaves  on  the  summer 
trees  to  the  wildest  blast  that  casts  down  all  which 
stands  in  its  way. 

The  natural  symbolism  of  the  wind,  to  popular  appre- 
hension the  least  material  of  all  material  forces,  and 
of  which  the  connection  with  the  immaterial  part  of  a 


T.7]     IS  THE  SPIRIT  STRAITENED?      199 

man's  personality  has  been  expressed  in  all  languages, 
points  to  a  divine,  to  an  immaterial,  to  a  mighty,  to 
a  life-giving  power  which  is  free  to  blow  whither  it 
listeth,  and  of  which  men  can  mark  the  effects,  though 
they  are  all  ignorant  of  the  force  itself. 

The  other  symbol  of  the  fiery  tongues  which  parted 
and  sat  upon  each  of  them  speaks  in  like  manner  of 
the  divine  influence,  not  as  destructive,  but  full  of 
quick,  rejoicing  energy  and  life,  the  power  to  trans- 
form and  to  purify.  Whithersoever  the  fire  comes,  it 
changes  ail  things  into  its  own  substance.  Whither- 
soever the  fire  comes,  there  the  ruddy  spires  shoot  up- 
wards towards  the  heavens.  Whithersoever  the  fire 
comes,  there  all  bonds  and  fetters  are  melted  and  con- 
sumed. And  so  this  fire  transforms,  purifies,  ennobles, 
quickens,  sets  free  ;  and  where  the  fiery  Spirit  is,  there 
are  energy,  swift  life,  rejoicing  activity,  transforming 
and  transmuting  power  which  changes  the  recipient  of 
the  flame  into  flame  himself. 

Then,  still  further,  in  the  fact  of  Pentecost  there  is 
the  promise  of  a  Divine  Spirit  which  is  to  influence  all 
the  moral  side  of  humanity.  This  is  the  great  and 
glorious  distinction  between  the  Christian  doctrine  of 
inspiration  and  all  others  which  have,  in  heathen 
lands,  partially  reached  similar  conceptions — that  the 
Gospel  of  Jesus  Christ  has  laid  emphasis  upon  the 
Holy  Spirit,  and  has  declared  that  holiness  of  heart 
is  the  touchstone  and  test  of  all  claims  of  divine  in- 
spiration. Gifts  are  much,  graces  are  more.  An  in- 
spiration which  makes  wise  is  to  be  coveted,  an 
inspiration  which  makes  holy  is  transcendently  better. 
There  we  find  the  safeguard  against  all  the  fanaticisms 
which  have  sometimes  invaded  the  Christian  Church, 
namely,  in  the  thought  that  the  Spirit  which  dwells  in 


200  MICAH  [CH.  II. 

men,  and  makes  them  free  from  the  obligations  of  out- 
ward law  and  cold  morality,  is  a  Spirit  that  works  a 
deeper  holiness  than  law  dreamed,  and  a  more  spon- 
taneous and  glad  conformity  to  all  things  that  are  fair 
and  good,  than  any  legislation  and  outward  command- 
ment could  ever  enforce.  The  Spirit  that  came  at 
Pentecost  is  not  merely  a  Spirit  of  rushing  might  and 
of  swift-flaming  energy,  but  it  is  a  Spirit  of  holiness, 
whose  most  blessed  and  intimate  work  is  the  pro- 
duction in  us  of  all  homely  virtues  and  sweet,  un- 
pretending goodnesses  which  can  adorn  and  gladden 
humanity. 

Still  further,  the  Pentecost  carried  in  it  the  promise 
and  prophecy  of  a  Spirit  granted  to  all  the  Church. 
'They  were  all  filled  with  the  Holy  Ghost.'  This  is 
the  true  democracy  of  Christianity,  that  its  very  basis 
is  laid  in  the  thought  that  every  member  of  the  body 
is  equally  close  to  the  Head,  and  equally  recipient  of 
the  life.  There  is  none  now  who  has  a  Spirit  which 
others  do  not  possess.  The  ancient  aspiration  of  the 
Jewish  law-giver:  'Would  God  that  all  the  Lord's 
people  were  prophets,  and  that  the  Lord  would  put 
His  Spirit  upon  them,'  is  fulfilled  in  the  experience  of 
Pentecost;  and  the  handmaiden  and  the  children,  as 
well  as  the  old  men  and  the  servants,  receive  of  that 
universal  gift.  Therefore  sacerdotal  claims,  special 
functions,  privileged  classes,  are  alien  to  the  spirit  of 
Christianity,  and  blasphemies  against  the  inspiring 
God.  If  'one  is  your  Master,  all  ye  are  brethren,' 
and  if  we  have  all  been  made  to  drink  into  one  Spirit, 
then  no  longer  hath  any  man  dominion  over  our  faith 
nor  power  to  intervene  and  to  intercede  with  God 
for  us. 

And  still  further,  the  promise  of  this  early  history 


V.7]     IS  THE  SPIRIT  STRAITENED?      201 

was  that  of  a  Spirit  which  should  fill  the  whole 
nature  of  the  men  to  whom  He  was  granted  ;  filling— 
in  the  measure,  of  course,  of  their  receptivity — them 
as  the  great  sea  does  all  the  creeks  and  indentations 
along  the  shore.  The  deeper  the  creek,  the  deeper  the 
water  in  it ;  the  further  inland  it  runs,  the  further 
will  the  refreshing  tide  penetrate  the  bosom  of  the 
continent.  And  so  each  man,  according  to  his  char- 
acter, stature,  circumstances,  and  all  the  varying  con- 
ditions which  determine  his  power  of  receptivity,  will 
receive  a  varying  measure  of  that  gift.  Yet  it  is 
meant  that  all  shall  be  full.  The  little  vessel,  the  tiny 
cup,  as  well  as  the  great  cistern  and  the  enormous  vat, 
each  contains  according  to  its  capacity.  And  if  all  are 
filled,  then  this  quick  Spirit  must  have  the  power  to 
influence  all  the  provinces  of  human  nature,  must 
touch  the  moral,  must  touch  the  spiritual.  The  tem- 
porary manifestations  and  extraordinary  signs  of  His 
power  may  well  drop  away  as  the  flower  drops  when 
the  fruit  has  set.  The  operations  of  the  Divine  Spirit 
are  to  be  felt  thrilling  through  all  the  nature,  and 
every  part  of  the  man's  being  is  to  be  recipient  of  the 
power.  Just  as  when  you  take  a  candle  and  plunge  it 
into  a  jar  of  oxygen  it  blazes  up,  so  my  poor  human 
nature  immersed  in  that  Divine  Spirit,  baptized  in 
the  Holy  Ghost,  shall  flame  in  all  its  parts  into  un- 
suspected and  hitherto  inexperienced  brightness.  Such 
are  the  elements  of  the  promise  of  Pentecost. 

II.  And  now,  in  the  next  place,  look  at  the  apparent 
failure  of  the  promise. 

'  Is  the  Spirit  of  the  Lord  straitened  ? '  Look  at 
Christendom.  Look  at  all  the  churches.  Look  at 
yourselves.  "Will  any  one  say  that  the  religious  con- 
dition   of    any  body  of    professed    believers    at   this 


202  MICAH  [CH.  II. 

moment  corresponds  to  Pentecost  ?  Is  not  the  gap  so 
wide  that  to  fill  it  up  seems  almost  impossible?  Is 
not  the  stained  and  imperfect  fulfilment  a  miserable 
satire  upon  the  promise?  'If  the  Lord  be  with  us,' 
said  one  of  the  heroes  of  ancient  Israel,  'wherefore 
is  all  this  come  upon  us  ? '  I  am  sure  that  we  may 
say  the  same.  If  the  Lord  be  with  us,  what  is  the 
meaning  of  the  state  of  things  which  we  see  around 
us,  and  must  recognise  in  ourselves?  Do  any  exist- 
ing churches  present  the  final  perfect  form  of  Chris- 
tianity as  embodied  in  a  society  ?  Would  not  the  best 
thing  that  could  happen,  and  the  thing  that  will  have 
to  happen  some  day,  be  the  disintegration  of  the 
existing  organisations  in  order  to  build  up  a  more 
perfect  habitation  of  God  through  the  Spirit?  I  do 
not  wish  to  exaggerate.  God  knows  there  is  no  need 
for  exaggerating.  The  plain,  unvarnished  story,  with- 
out any  pessimistic  picking  out  of  the  black  bits  and 
forgetting  all  the  light  ones,  is  bad  enough. 

Take  three  points  on  which  I  do  not  dwell  and  apply 
them  to  yourselves,  dear  brethren,  and  estimate  by 
them  the  condition  of  things  around  us.  First,  say 
whether  the  ordinary  tenor  of  our  own  religious  life 
looks  as  if  we  had  that  Divine  Spirit  in  us  which 
transforms  everything  into  its  own  beauty,  and 
makes  men,  through  all  the  regions  of  their  nature, 
holy  and  pure.  Then  ask  yourselves  the  question 
whether  the  standard  of  devotion  and  consecration  in 
any  church  witnesses  of  the  presence  of  a  Divine 
Spirit.  A  little  handful  of  people,  the  best  of  them 
very  partially  touched  with  the  life  of  God,  and  very 
imperfectly  consecrated  to  His  service,  surrounded  by 
a  great  mass  about  whom  we  can  scarcely,  in  the 
judgment  of  charity,  say  even  so  much,  that  is  the 


T.  7]    IS  THE  SPIRIT  STRAITENED  ?      203 

description  of  most  of  our  congregations.  *  Are  these 
His  doings  ? '    Surely  somebody  else's  than  His. 

Take  another  question.  Do  the  relations  of  modern 
Christians  and  their  churches  to  one  another  attest 
the  presence  of  a  unifying  Spirit?  'We  have  all  been 
made  to  drink  into  one  Spirit,'  said  Paul.  Alas,  alas  I 
does  it  seem  as  if  we  had?  Look  round  professing 
Christendom,  look  at  the  rivalries  and  the  jealousies 
between  two  chapels  in  adjoining  streets.  Look  at 
the  gulfs  between  Christian  men  who  differ  only  on 
some  comparative  trifle  of  organisation  and  polity, 
and  say  if  such  things  correspond  to  the  Pentecostal 
promise  of  one  Spirit  which  is  to  make  all  the  members 
into  one  body  ?  *  Is  the  Spirit  of  the  Lord  straitened  ? 
Are  these  His  doings  ? ' 

Take  another  branch  of  evidence.  Look  at  the  com- 
parative impotence  of  the  Church  in  its  conflict  with 
the  growing  worldliness  of  the  world.  I  do  not  forget 
how  much  is  being  done  all  about  us  to-day,  and  how 
still  Christ's  Gospel  is  winning  triumphs,  but  I  do  not 
suppose  that  any  man  can  look  thoughtfully  and  dis- 
passionately on  the  condition,  say,  for  instance,  of 
Manchester,  or  of  any  of  our  great  towns,  and  mark 
how  the  populace  knows  nothing  and  cares  nothing 
about  us  and  our  Christianity,  and  never  comes  into 
our  places  of  worship,  and  has  no  share  in  our  hopes 
any  more  than  if  they  lived  in  Central  Africa,  and  that 
after  eighteen  hundred  years  of  nominal  Christianity, 
without  feeling  that  some  malign  influence  has  arrested 
the  leaping  growth  of  the  early  Church,  and  that  some- 
how or  other  that  lava  stream,  if  I  might  so  call  it, 
which  poured  hot  from  the  heart  of  God  in  the  old  days 
has  had  its  flow  checked,  and  over  its  burning  bed 
there  has  spread  a  black  and  wrinkled  crust,  whatso- 


204  MIC  AH  [CH.  n. 

ever  lingering  heat  there  may  still  be  at  the  centre. 
'  If  God  be  with  us,  why  has  all  this  come  upon  us  ? ' 

III.  And  now,  lastly,  let  us  think  for  a  moment  of 
the  solution  of  the  contradiction. 

The  indignant  questions  of  my  text  may  be  taken, 
with  a  little  possibly  permissible  violence,  as  express- 
ing and  dismissing  some  untrue  explanations.  One 
explanation  that  sometimes  is  urged  is,  the  Spirit  of 
the  Lord  is  straitened.  That  explanation  takes  two 
forms.  Sometimes  you  hear  people  saying,  'Christi- 
anity is  effete.  We  have  to  go  now  to  fresh  fountains 
of  inspiration,  and  turn  away  from  these  broken 
cisterns  that  can  hold  no  water.'  I  am  not  going  to 
argue  that  question.  I  do  not  think  for  my  part  that 
Christianity  will  be  effete  until  the  world  has  got  up 
to  it  and  beyond  it  in  its  practice,  and  it  will  be  a  good 
while  before  that  happens.  Christianity  will  not  be 
worn  out  until  men  have  copied  and  reduced  to  practice 
the  example  of  Jesus  Christ,  and  they  have  not  quite 
got  that  length  yet.  No  shadow  of  a  fear  that  the 
gospel  has  lost  its  power,  or  that  God's  Spirit  has 
become  weak,  should  be  permitted  to  creep  over  our 
hearts.  The  promise  is,  'I  will  send  another  Com- 
forter, and  He  shall  abide  with  you  for  ever.'  It  is  a 
permanent  gift  that  was  given  to  the  Church  on  that 
day.  We  have  to  distinguish  in  the  story  between  the 
symbols,  the  gift,  and  the  consequences  of  the  gift. 
The  first  and  the  last  are  transient,  the  second  is  per- 
manent. The  symbols  were  transient.  The  people 
who  came  running  together  saw  no  tongues  of  fire. 
The  consequences  were  transient.  The  tongues  and 
the  miraculous  utterances  were  but  for  a  time.  The 
results  vary  according  to  the  circniiistances;  but  the 
central  thing,  the  gift  itself,  is  an   irrevocable  gift. 


V.7]    IS  THE  SPIRIT  STRAITENED?      205 

and  once  bestowed  is  ever  with  the  Church  to  aU 
generations. 

Another  form  of  the  explanation  is  the  theory  that 
God  in  His  sovereignty  is  pleased  to  withhold  His  Spirit 
for  reasons  which  we  cannot  trace.  But  it  is  not  true 
that  the  gift  once  given  varies  in  the  degree  in  which 
it  is  continued.  There  is  always  the  same  flow  from 
God.  There  are  ebbs  and  flows  in  the  spiritual  power 
of  the  Church.  Yes !  and  the  tide  runs  out  of  your 
harbours.  Is  there  any  less  water  in  the  sea  because 
it  does  ?  So  the  gift  may  ebb  away  from  a  man,  from 
a  community,  from  an  epoch,  not  because  God's  mani- 
festation and  bestowment  fluctuate,  but  because  our 
receptivity  changes.  So  we  dismiss,  and  are  bound  to 
dismiss,  if  we  are  Christians,  the  unbelieving  explana- 
tion, '  The  Spirit  of  the  Lord  is  straitened,'  and  not  to 
sit  with  our  hands  folded,  as  if  an  inscrutable  sove- 
reignty, with  which  we  have  nothing  to  do,  sometimes 
sent  more  and  sometimes  less  of  His  spiritual  gifts 
upon  a  waiting  Church.  It  is  not  so.  'With  Him  is 
no  variableness.'  The  gifts  of  God  are  without  repent- 
ance ;  and  the  Spirit  that  was  given  once,  according  to 
the  Master's  own  word  already  quoted,  is  given  that 
He  may  abide  with  us  for  ever. 

Therefore  we  have  to  come  back  to  this,  which  is 
the  point  to  which  I  seek  to  bring  you  and  myself,  in 
lowly  penitence  and  contrite  acknowledgment — that  it 
is  all  our  own  fault  and  the  result  of  evils  in  ourselves 
that  may  be  remedied,  that  we  have  so  little  of  that 
divine  gift;  and  that  if  the  churches  of  this  country 
and  of  this  day  seem  to  be  cursed  and  blasted  in  so 
much  of  their  fruitless  operations  and  formal  worship, 
it  is  the  fault  of  the  churches,  and  not  of  the  Lord  of 
the  churches.    The  stream  that  poured  forth  from  the 


206  MICAH  [OH.  II. 

throne  of  God  has  not  lost  itself  in  the  sands,  nor  is  it 
shrunken  in  its  volume.  The  fire  that  was  kindled  on 
Pentecost  has  not  died  down  into  grey  ashes.  The 
rushing  of  the  mighty  wind  that  woke  on  that  morn- 
ing has  not  calmed  and  stilled  itself  into  the  stagnancy 
and  suffocating  breathlessness  of  midday  heat.  The 
same  fulness  of  the  Spirit  which  filled  the  believers  on 
that  day  is  available  for  us  all.  If,  like  that  waiting 
Church  of  old,  we  abide  in  prayer  and  supplication, 
the  gift  will  be  given  to  us  too,  and  we  may  repeat  and 
reproduce,  if  not  the  miracles  which  we  do  not  need, 
yet  the  necessary  inspiration  of  the  highest  and  the 
noblest  days  and  saints  in  the  history  of  the  Church. 
*  If  ye,  being  evil,  know  how  to  give  good  gifts  to  your 
children,  how  much  more  will  your  Heavenly  Father 
give  the  Holy  Spirit  to  them  that  ask  Him?'  'Ask 
and  ye  shall  receive,'  and  be  filled  '  with  the  Holy  Ghost 
and  with  power.' 


CHRIST  THE  BREAKER 

'  The  Breaker  is  come  up  before  them :  they  have  broken  up,  and  have  passed 
through  the  gate,  and  are  gone  out  by  it :  and  their  king  shall  pass  before  them, 
and  the  Lord  on  the  head  of  them.'— Micah  ii.  13. 

MiCAH  was  contemporary  with  Isaiah.  The  two 
prophets  stand,  to  a  large  extent,  on  the  same  level 
of  prophetic  knowledge.  Characteristic  of  both  of 
them  is  the  increasing  clearness  of  the  figure  of  the 
personal  Messiah,  and  the  increasing  fulness  of  detail 
with  which  His  functions  are  described.  Characteristic 
of  both  of  them  is  the  presentation  which  we  find  in 
this  text  of  that  Messiah's  work  as  being  the  gathering 
together  of  the  scattered  captive  people  and  the  leading 
them  back  in  triumph  into  the  blessed  land. 


V.13]  CHRIST  THE  BREAKER  207 

Such  is  the  image  which  underlies  my  text.  Of  course 
I  have  nothing  to  do  now  with  questions  as  to  any 
narrower  and  nearer  historical  fulfilment,  because  I 
believe  that  all  these  Messianic  prophecies  which  were 
susceptible  of,  and  many  of  which  obtained,  a  historical 
and  approximate  fulfilm.ent  in  the  restoration  of  the 
Jews  from  the  Babylonish  captivity,  have  a  higher 
and  broader  and  more  real  accomplishment  in  that 
great  deliverance  wrought  by  Jesus  Christ,  of  which 
all  these  earlier  and  partial  and  outward  manifestations 
were  themselves  prophecies  and  shadows. 

So  I  make  no  apology  for  taking  the  words  before 
us  as  having  their  only  real  accomplishment  in  the 
office  and  working  of  Jesus  Christ.  He  is  '  the  Breaker 
which  is  come  up  before  us.'  He  it  is  that  has  broken 
out  the  path  on  which  we  may  travel,  and  in  whom, 
in  a  manner  which  the  Prophet  dreamed  not  of,  '  the 
Lord  is  at  the  head '  of  us,  and  our  King  goes  before  us. 
So  that  my  object  is  simply  to  take  that  great  name, 
the  Breaker,  and  to  see  the  manifold  ways  in  which  in 
Scripture  it  is  applied  to  the  various  work  of  Jesus 
Christ  in  our  redemption. 

I.  I  follow  entirely  the  lead  of  corresponding  passages 
in  other  portions  of  Scripture,  and  to  begin  with,  I  ask 
you  to  think  of  that  great  work  of  our  Divine  Redeemer 
by  which  He  has  broken  for  the  captives  the  prison- 
house  of  their  bondage. 

The  image  that  is  here  before  us  is  either  that  of 
some  foreign  land  in  which  the  scattered  exiles  were 
bound  in  iron  captivity,  or  more  probably  some  dark 
and  gloomy  prison,  with  high  walls,  massive  gates,  and 
barred  windows,  wherein  they  were  held ;  and  to  them 
sitting  hopeless  in  the  shadow  of  death,  and  bound  in 
affliction  and  iron,  there  comes  one  mysterious  figure 


208  MICAH  [CH.  n. 

whom  the  Prophet  could  not  describe  more  particularly, 
and  at  His  coining  the  gates  flew  apart,  and  the  chains 
dropped  from  their  hands ;  and  the  captives  had  heart 
put  into  them,  and  gathering  themselves  together  into 
a  triumphant  band,  they  went  out  with  songs  and  ever- 
lasting joy  upon  their  heads;  freemen,  and  on  the 
march  to  the  home  of  their  fathers.  '  The  Breaker  is 
gone  up  before  them ;  they  have  broken,  and  passed 
through  the  gate,  and  are  gone  out  by  it.' 

And  is  not  that  our  condition  ?  Many  of  us  know 
not  the  bondage  in  which  we  are  held.  We  are  held  in 
it  all  the  more  really  and  sadly  because  we  conceit 
ourselves  to  be  free.  Those  poor,  light-hearted  people 
in  the  dreadful  days  of  the  French  Revolution,  used  to 
keep  up  some  ghastly  mockery  of  society  and  cheerful- 
ness in  their  prisons;  and  festooned  the  bars  with 
flowers,  and  made  believe  to  be  carrying  on  their  life 
freely  as  they  used  to  do ;  but  for  all  that,  day  after 
day  the  tumbrils  came  to  the  gates,  and  morning  after 
morning  the  jailer  stood  at  the  door  of  the  dungeons 
with  the  fatal  list  in  his  hand,  and  one  after  another 
of  the  triflers  was  dragged  away  to  death.  And  so 
men  and  women  are  living  a  life  which  they  fancy 
is  free,  and  all  the  while  they  are  in  bondage,  held 
in  a  prison-house.  You,  my  brother!  are  chained  by 
guilt;  you  are  chained  by  sin,  you  are  chained  by 
the  habit  of  evil  with  a  strength  of  which  you  never 
know  till  you  try  to  shake  it  off. 

And  there  comes  to  each  of  us  a  mighty  Deliverer, 
who  breaks  the  gates  of  brass,  and  who  cuts  the  bars 
of  iron  in  sunder.  Christ  comes  to  us.  By  His  death 
He  has  borne  away  the  guilt ;  by  His  living  Spirit  He 
will  bear  away  the  dominion  of  sin  from  our  hearts; 
and  if  the  Son  will  make  us  free  we  shall  be  free  indeed. 


V.13]  CHRIST  THE  BREAKER  209 

Oh!  ponder  that  deep  truth,  I  pray  you,  which  the 
Lord  Christ  has  spoken  in  words  that  carry  conviction 
in  their  very  simplicity  to  every  conscience :  '  He  that 
committeth  sin  is  the  slave  of  sin.'  And  as  you  feel 
sometimes — and  you  all  feel  sometimes — the  catch  of 
the  fetter  on  your  wrists  when  you  would  fain  stretch 
out  your  hands  to  good,  listen  as  to  a  true  gospel  to 
this  old  word  which,  in  its  picturesque  imagery,  carries 
a  truth  that  should  be  life.  To  us  all '  the  Breaker  is 
gone  up  before  us,'  the  prison  gates  are  open.  Follow 
His  steps,  and  take  the  freedom  which  He  gives ;  and 
be  sure  that  you  '  stand  fast  in  the  liberty  wherewith 
Christ  hath  made  you  free,  and  be  not  entangled  again 
with  any  yoke  of  bondage.' 

Men  and  women!  Some  of  you  are  the  slaves  of 
your  own  lusts.  Some  of  you  are  the  slaves  of  the 
world's  maxims.  Some  of  you  are  held  in  bondage  by 
some  habit  that  you  abominate,  but  cannot  get  away 
from.  Here  is  freedom  for  you.  The  dark  walls  of 
the  prison  are  round  us  all.  '  The  Scripture  hath  shut 
up  all  in  sin,  that  He  might  have  mercy  upon  all.' 
Blessed  be  His  name  !  As  the  angel  came  to  the  sleeping 
Apostle,  and  to  his  light  touch  the  iron  gates  swung 
obedient  on  their  hinges,  and  Roman  soldiers  who 
ought  to  have  watched  their  prey  were  lulled  to  sleep, 
and  fetters  that  held  the  limbs  dropped  as  if  melted ; 
so,  silently,  in  His  meek  and  merciful  strength,  the 
Christ  comes  to  us  all,  and  the  iron  gate  which  leadeth 
out  into  freedom  opens  of  its  own  accord  at  His  touch, 
and  the  fetters  fall  from  our  limbs,  and  we  go  forth 
free  men.     'The  Breaker  is  gone  up  before  us.' 

II.  Again,  take  another  application  of  this  same 
figure  found  in  Scripture,  which  sets  forth  Jesus  Christ 
as  being  the  Opener  of  the  path  to  God. 

o 


210  MICAH  [CH.  II. 

*  I  am  the  Way  and  the  Truth  and  the  Life,  no  man 
Cometh  to  the  Father  but  by  Me,'  said  He.  And  again, 
'  By  a  new  and  living  way  which  He  hath  opened  for 
us  through  the  veil '  (that  is  to  say,  His  flesh),  we  can 
have  free  access  *  with  confidence  by  the  faith  of  Him.' 
That  is  to  say,  if  we  rightly  understand  our  natural 
condition,  it  is  not  only  one  of  bondage  to  evil,  but  it 
is  one  of  separation  from  God.  Parts  of  the  divine 
character  are  always  beautiful  and  sweet  to  every 
human  heart  when  it  thinks  about  them.  Parts  of  the 
divine  character  stand  frowning  before  a  man  who 
knows  himself  for  what  he  is ;  and  conscience  tells  us 
that  between  God  and  us  there  is  a  mountain  of 
impediment  piled  up  by  our  own  evil.  To  us  Christ 
comes,  the  Path-finder  and  the  Path ;  the  Pioneer  who 
breaks  the  way  for  us  through  all  the  hindrances,  and 
leads  us  up  to  the  presence  of  God. 

For  we  do  not  know  God  as  He  is  except  by  Jesus 
Christ.  We  see  fragments,  and  often  distorted  frag- 
ments, of  the  divine  nature  and  character  apart  from 
Jesus,  but  the  real  divine  nature  as  it  is,  and  as  it  is  in 
its  relation  to  me,  a  sinner,  is  only  made  known  to  me  in 
the  face  of  Jesus  Christ.  When  we  see  Him  we  see  God ; 
Christ's  tears  are  God's  pity,  Christ's  gentleness  is  God's 
meekness,  Christ's  tender,  drawing  love  is  not  only  a 
revelation  of  a  most  pure  and  sweet  Brother's  heart,  but 
a  manifestation  through  that  Brother's  heart  of  the 
deepest  depths  of  the  divine  nature.  Christ  is  the 
heart  of  God.  Apart  from  Him,  we  come  to  the  God 
of  our  own  consciences  and  we  tremble;  we  come  to 
the  God  of  our  owu  fancies  and  we  presume ;  we  come 
to  the  God  dimly  guessed  at  and  pieced  together  from 
out  of  the  hints  and  indications  of  His  works,  and  He 
is  little  more  than  a  dead  name  to  us.    Apart  from 


V.13]  CHRIST  THE  BREAKER  211 

Christ  we  come  to  a  peradventure  which  we  call  a  God ; 
a  shadow  through  which  you  can  see  the  stars  shining. 
But  we  know  the  Father  when  we  believe  in  Christ. 
And  so  all  the  clouds  rising  from  our  own  hearts  and 
consciences  and  fancies  and  misconceptions,  which  we 
have  piled  together  between  God  and  ourselves,  Christ 
clears  away ;  and  thus  He  opens  the  path  to  God. 

And  He  opens  it  in  another  way  too,  on  which  I 
cannot  dwell.  It  is  only  the  God  manifest  in  Jesus 
Christ  that  draws  men's  hearts  to  Him.  The  attractive 
power  of  the  divine  nature  is  all  in  Him  who  has 
said,  '  I,  if  I  be  lifted  up,  will  draw  all  men  unto  Me.* 
The  God  whom  men  know,  or  think  they  know,  out- 
side of  the  revelation  of  divinity  in  Jesus  Christ,  is  a 
God  before  whom  they  sometimes  tremble,  who  is 
far  more  often  their  terror  than  their  love,  who  is 
their  *  ghastliest  doubt '  still  more  frequently  than  He 
is  their  '  dearest  faith.'  But  the  God  that  is  in  Christ 
woos  and  wins  men  to  Him,  and  from  His  great  sweet- 
ness there  streams  out,  as  it  were,  a  magnetic  influence 
that  draws  hearts  to  Him.  The  God  that  is  in  Christ 
is  the  only  God  that  humanity  ever  loved.  Other  gods 
they  may  have  worshipped  with  cowering  terror  and 
with  far-off  lip  reverence,  but  this  God  has  a  heart, 
and  wins  hearts  because  He  has.  So  Christ  opens  the 
way  to  Him. 

And  still  further,  in  a  yet  higher  fashion,  that 
Saviour  is  the  Path-breaker  to  the  Divine  Presence,  in 
that  He  not  only  makes  God  known  to  us,  and  not 
only  makes  Him  so  known  to  us  as  to  draw  us  to  Him, 
but  in  that  likewise  He,  by  the  fact  of  His  Cross  and 
passion,  has  borne  and  borne  away  the  impediments 
of  our  own  sin  and  transgression  which  rise  for  ever 
between  us  and  Him,  unless  He  shall  sweep  them  out 


212  MICAH  [CH.  II 

of  the  way.  He  has  made  *  the  rough  places  plain  and 
the  crooked  things  straight';  levelled  the  mountains 
and  raised  the  valleys,  and  cast  up  across  all  the 
wilderness  of  the  world  a  highway  along  which  'the 
wayfaring  man  though  a  fool'  may  travel.  Narrow 
understandings  may  know,  and  selfish  hearts  may  love, 
and  low-pitched  confessions  may  reach  the  ear  of  the 
God  who  comes  near  to  us  in  Christ,  that  we  in  Christ 
may  come  near  to  Him.  The  Breaker  is  gone  up  before 
us  ;  '  having  therefore,  brethren,  boldness  to  enter  into 
the  holiest  of  all  ...  by  a  new  and  liv  ing  way,  which 
He  hath  consecrated  for  us  .  .  .  let  us  draw  near  with 
true  hearts.' 

III.  Then  still  further,  another  modification  of  this 
figure  is  found  in  the  frequent  representations  of 
Scripture,  by  which  our  Lord  is  the  Breaker,  going  up 
before  us  in  the  sense  that  He  is  the  Captain  of  our 
life's  march. 

We  have,  in  the  words  of  my  text,  the  image  of  the 
gladly-gathered  people  flocking  after  the  Leader.  '  They 
have  broken  up,  and  have  passed  through  the  gate,  and 
are  gone  out  by  it ;  and  their  King  shall  pass  before 
them,  and  the  Lord  on  the  head  of  them.'  The  Prophet 
knew  not  that  the  Lord  their  King,  of  whom  it  is 
enigmatically  said  that  He  too,  as  well  as  '  the  Breaker,' 
is  to  go  before  them,  was  in  mysterious  fashion  to 
dwell  in  that  Breaker ;  and  that  those  two,  whom  He 
sees  separately,  are  yet  in  a  deep  and  mysterious  sense 
one.  The  host  of  the  captives,  returning  in  triumphant 
march  through  the  wilderness  and  to  the  promised 
land,  is,  in  the  Prophet's  words,  headed  both  by  the 
Breaker  and  by  the  Lord.  We  know  that  the  Breaker 
is  the  Lord,  the  Angel  of  the  Covenant  in  whom  is  the 
name  of  Jehovah. 


V.  13]  CHRIST  THE  BREAKER  213 

And  so  we  connect  with  all  these  words  of  my  text 
such  words  as  designate  our  Saviour  as  the  Captain  of 
our  salvation ;  such  words  as  His  own  in  which  He  says, 
•When  He  putteth  forth  His  sheep  He  goeth  before 
them ' — such  words  as  His  Apostle  used  when  he  said, 
'Leaving  us  an  ensample  that  we  should  follow  in  His 
steps.'  And  by  all  there  is  suggested  this — that  Christ, 
who  breaks  the  prison  of  our  sins,  and  leads  us  forth 
on  the  path  to  God,  marches  at  the  head  of  our  life's 
journey,  and  is  our  Example  and  Commander;  and 
Himself  present  with  us  through  all  life's  changes  and 
its  sorrows. 

Here  is  the  great  blessing  and  peculiarity  of  Christian 
morals  that  they  are  all  brought  down  to  that  sweet 
obligation :  '  Do  as  I  did.'  Here  is  the  great  blessing 
and  strength  for  the  Christian  life  in  all  its  difficulties 
— you  can  never  go  where  you  cannot  see  in  the  desert 
the  footprints,  haply  spotted  with  blood,  that  your 
Master  left  there  before  you,  and  planting  your  tremb- 
ling feet  in  the  prints,  as  a  child  might  imitate  his 
father's  strides,  may  learn  to  recognise  that  all  duty 
comes  to  this ;  '  Follow  Me ' ;  and  that  all  sorrow  is 
calmed,  ennobled,  made  tolerable,  and  glorijfied,  by  the 
thought  that  He  has  borne  it. 

The  Roman  matron  of  the  legend  struck  the  knife 
into  her  bosom,  and  handed  it  to  her  husband  with  the 
words, '  It  is  not  painful ! '  Christ  has  gone  before  us 
in  all  the  dreary  solitude,  and  in  all  the  agony  and 
pains  of  life.  He  has  hallowed  them  all,  and  has  taken 
the  bitterness  and  the  pain  out  of  each  of  them  for 
them  that  love  Him.  If  we  feel  that  the  Breaker  is 
before  us,  and  that  we  are  marching  behind  Him,  then 
whithersoever  He  leads  us  we  may  follow,  and  what- 
soever He  has  passed  through  we  may  pass  through 


214  MICAH  [OH.  II. 

We  carry  in  His  life  the  all-sufficing  pattern  of  duty. 
We  have  in  His  companionship  the  all-strengthening 
consolation.  Let  us  leave  the  direction  of  our  road  in 
His  hands,  who  never  says  '  Go ! '  but  always  *  Come ! ' 
This  General  marches  in  the  midst  of  His  battalions 
and  sets  His  soldiers  on  no  enterprises  or  forlorn  hopes 
which  He  has  not  Himself  dared  and  overcome. 

So  Christ  goes  as  our  Companion  before  us,  the  true 
pillar  of  fire  and  cloud  in  which  the  present  Deity  abode, 
and  He  is  with  us  in  real  companionship.  Our  joyful 
march  through  the  wilderness  is  directed,  patterned, 
protected,  companioned  by  Him,  and  when  He  '  putteth 
forth  His  own  sheep,'  blessed  be  His  name,  '  He  goeth 
before  them.' 

IV.  And  now,  lastly,  there  is  a  final  application  of 
this  figure  which  sets  forth  our  Lord  as  the  Breaker  for 
us  of  the  bands  of  death,  and  the  Forerunner  '  entered 
for  us  into  the  heavens.' 

Christ's  resurrection  is  the  only  solid  proof  of  a  future 
life.  Christ's  present  resurrection  life  is  the  power  by 
partaking  in  which,  'though  we  were  dead,  yet  shall 
we  live.' 

He  has  trodden  that  path,  too,  before  us.  He  has 
entered  into  the  great  prison-house  into  which  the 
generations  of  men  have  been  hounded  and  hurried; 
and  where  they  lie  in  their  graves,  as  in  their  narrow 
cells.  He  has  entered  there;  with  one  blow  He  has 
struck  the  gates  from  their  hinges,  and  has  passed  out, 
and  no  soul  can  any  longer  be  shut  in  as  for  ever  into 
that  ruined  and  opened  prison.  Like  Samson,  He  has 
taken  the  gates  which  from  of  old  barred  its  entrance, 
and  borne  them  on  His  strong  shoulders  to  the  city 
on  the  hill,  and  now  Death's  darts  are  blunted,  his 
fetters  are  broken,  and  his  gaol  has  its  doors  wide 


T.13]        AS  GOD,  SO  WORSHIPPER         215 

open,  and  there  is  nothing  for  him  to  do  now  but  to 
fall  upon  his  sword  and  to  kill  himself,  for  his  prisoners 
are  free.  '  Oh,  death  !  I  will  be  thy  plague ;  oh,  grave ! 
I  will  be  thy  destruction.'  '  The  Breaker  has  gone  up 
before  us ' ;  therefore  it  is  not  possible  that  we  should 
be  holden  of  the  impotent  chains  that  He  has  broken. 

The  Forerunner  is  for  us  entered  and  passed  through 
the  heavens,  and  entered  into  the  holiest  of  all.  We 
are  too  closely  knit  to  Him,  if  we  love  Him  and  trust 
Him,  to  make  it  possible  that  we  shall  be  where  He 
is  not,  or  that  He  shall  be  where  we  are  not.  Where 
He  has  gone  we  shall  go.  In  heaven,  blessed  be 
His  name !  He  will  still  be  the  leader  of  our  pro- 
gress and  the  captain  at  the  head  of  our  march.  For 
Ho  crowns  all  His  other  work  by  this,  that  having 
broken  the  prison-house  of  our  sins,  and  opened  for 
us  the  way  to  God,  and  been  the  leader  and  the  captain 
of  our  march  through  all  the  pilgrimage  of  life,  and 
the  opener  of  the  gate  of  the  grave  for  our  joyful 
resurrection,  and  the  opener  of  the  gate  of  heaven  for 
our  triumphal  entrance,  He  will  still  as  the  Lamb  that 
is  in  the  midst  of  the  Throne,  go  before  us,  and  lead  us 
into  green  pastures  and  by  the  still  waters,  and  this 
shall  be  the  description  of  the  growing  blessedness  and 
power  of  the  saints'  life  above,  '  These  are  they  which 
follow  the  Lamb  whithersoever  He  goeth.' 


AS  GOD,  SO  WORSHIPPER 

*  .  .  .  All  the  peoples  will  walk  every  one  in  the  name  of  his  god,  and  we  will 
walk  in  the  name  of  the  Lord  our  God  for  ever  and  ever.'— Micah  iv.  5  (R.V.). 

This  is  a  statement  of  a  general  truth  which  holds  good 
of  all  sorts  of  religion.  *To  walk'  is  equivalent  to 
carrying  on  a  course  of  practical  activity.    *  The  name  * 


216  MICAH  [CH.  IV 

of  a  god  is  his  manifested  character.    So  the  expression 

•  Walk  in  the  name '  means,  to  live  and  act  according  to, 
and  with  reference  to,  and  in  reliance  on,  the  character 
of  the  worshipper's  god.  In  the  Lord's  prayer  the 
petition  *  Hallowed  be  Thy  name '  precedes  the  petition 

•  Thy  will  be  done.'  From  reverent  thoughts  about  the 
name  must  flow  life  in  reverent  conformity  to  the  will. 

I.  A  man's  god  is  what  rules  his  practical  life. 

Religion  is  dependence  upon  a  Being  recognised  to  be 
perfect  and  sovereign,  whose  will  guides,  and  whose 
character  moulds,  the  whole  life.  That  general  state- 
ment may  be  broken  up  into  parts ;  and  we  may  dwell 
upon  the  attitude  of  dependence,  or  of  that  of  sub- 
mission, or  upon  that  of  admiration  and  recognition  of 
ideal  perfection,  or  upon  that  of  aspiration;  but  we 
come  at  last  to  the  one  thought — that  the  goal  of 
religion  is  likeness  and  the  truest  worship  is  imitation. 
Such  a  view  of  the  essence  of  religion  gives  point  to  the 
question.  What  is  our  god  ?  and  makes  it  a  very 
easily  applied,  and  very  searching  test,  of  our  lives. 
Whatever  we  profess,  that  which  we  feel  ourselves 
dependent  on,  that  which  we  invest,  erroneously  or 
rightly,  with  supreme  attributes  of  excellence,  that 
which  we  aspire  after  as  our  highest  good,  that  which 
shapes  and  orders  the  current  of  our  lives,  is  our  god. 
Wo  call  ourselves  Christians.  I  am  afraid  that  if  we 
tried  ourselves  by  such  a  test,  many  of  us  would  fail  to 
pass  it.  It  would  thin  the  ranks  of  all  churches  as 
effectually  as  did  Gideon's  ordeal  by  water,  which 
brought  down  a  mob  of  ten  thousand  to  a  little  stead- 
fast band  of  three  hundred.  No  matter  to  what  church 
we  belong,  or  how  flaming  our  professions,  our  practical 
religion  is  determined  by  our  answer  to  the  question, 
What  do  we  most  desire  ?    What  do  we  most  eagerly 


V.6]         AS  GOD,  SO  WORSHIPPER         217 

pursue  ?  England  has  as  much  need  as  ever  the  house 
of  Jacob  had  of  the  scathing  words  that  poured  like 
molten  lead  from  the  lips  of  Isaiah  the  son  of  Amoz, 
*  Their  land  is  full  of  silver  and  gold,  neither  is  there 
any  end  of  their  treasures.  Their  land  is  also  full  of 
idols :  they  vrorship  the  work  of  their  own  hands.' 
Money,  knowledge,  the  good  opinion  of  our  fellows, 
success  in  a  political  career — these,  and  the  like,  are 
our  gods.  There  is  a  worse  idolatry  than  that  which 
bows  down  before  stocks  and  stones.  The  aims 
that  absorb  us;  our  highest  ideal  of  excellence;  that 
which  possessed,  we  think  would  secure  our  blessed- 
ness ;  that  lacking  which  everything  else  is  insipid  and 
vain — these  are  our  gods :  and  the  solemn  prohibition 
may  well  be  thundered  in  the  ears  of  the  unconscious 
idolaters  not  only  in  the  English  world,  but  also  in  the 
English  churches.  'Thou  shalt  not  give  My  glory  to 
another,  nor  My  praise  to  graven  images.' 

II.  The  worshipper  will  resemble  his  god  in  character. 

As  we  have  already  said,  the  goal  of  religion  is  like- 
ness, and  the  truest  worship  is  imitation.  It  is  proved 
by  the  universal  experience  of  humanity  that  the  level 
of  morality  will  never  rise  above  the  type  enshrined  in 
their  gods ;  or  if  it  does,  in  consequence  of  contact  with 
a  higher  type  in. a  higher  religion,  the  old  gods  will  be 
flung  to  the  moles  and  the  bats.  '  They  that  make  them 
are  like  unto  them;  so  is  every  one  that  trusteth  in 
them.'  That  is  a  universal  truth.  The  worshippers 
were  in  the  Prophet's  thought  as  dumb  and  dead  as  the 
idols.  They  who  '  worship  vanity '  inevitably  '  become 
vain.'  A  Venus  or  a  Jupiter,  a  Baal  or  an  Ashtoreth, 
sets  the  tone  of  morals. 

This  truth  is  abundantly  enforced  by  observation  of 
the  characters  of  the  men  amongst  us  who  are  practical 


218  MICAH  [CH.  IV. 

idolaters.  They  are  narrowed  and  lowered  to  corre- 
spond with  their  gods.  Low  ideals  can  never  lead  to 
lofty  lives.  The  worship  of  money  makes  the  com- 
plexion yellow,  like  jaundice.  A  man  who  concentrates 
his  life's  effort  upon  some  earthly  good,  the  attainment 
of  which  seems  to  be,  so  long  as  it  is  unattained,  his 
passport  to  bliss,  thereby  blunts  many  a  finer  aspiration, 
and  makes  himself  blind  to  many  a  nobler  vision.  Men 
who  are  always  hunting  after  some  paltry  and  perish- 
able earthly  good,  become  like  dogs  who  follow  scent 
with  their  noses  at  the  ground,  and  are  unconscious  of 
everything  a  yard  above  their  heads.  We  who  live 
amidst  the  rush  of  a  great  commercial  community 
see  many  instances  of  lives  stiffened,  narrowed,  im- 
poverished, and  hardened  by  the  fierce  effort  to  become 
rich.  And  wherever  we  look  with  adequate  knowledge 
over  the  many  idolatries  of  English  life,  we  see  similar 
processes  at  work  on  character.  Everywhere  around 
us  *  the  peoples  are  walking  every  one  in  the  name  of 
his  god.'  That  character  constitutes  the  worshipper's 
ideal ;  it  is  a  pattern  to  which  he  aims  to  be  assimilated ; 
it  is  a  good  the  possession  of  which  bethinks  will  make 
him  blessed;  it  is  that  for  which  he  willingly  sacrifices 
much  which  a  clearer  vision  would  teach  him  is  far 
more  precious  than  that  for  which  he  is  content  to 
barter  it. 

The  idolaters  walking  in  the  name  of  their  god  is  a 
rebuke  to  the  Christian  men  who  with  faltering  steps 
and  many  an  aberration  are  seeking  to  walk  in  the 
name  of  the  Lord  their  God.  If  He  is  in  any  real  and 
deep  sense  '  our  God,'  we  shall  see  in  Him  the  realised 
ideal  of  all  excellence,  the  fountain  of  all  our  blessed- 
ness, the  supreme  good  for  our  seeking  hearts,  the 
sovereign  authority  to   sway  our  wills ;  the  measure 


V.6]  AS  GOD,  SO  WORSHIPPER        219 

of  our  conscious  possession  of  Him  will  be  the  measure 
of  our  glad  imitation  of  Him,  and  our  joyful  spirits, 
enfranchised  by  the  assurance  of  our  loving  possession 
of  Him  who  is  love,  will  hear  Him  ever  whisper  to  us, 
•Be  ye  perfect  as  your  Father  which  is  in  heaven  is 
perfect.'  The  desire  to  reproduce  in  the  narrow  bounds 
of  our  human  spirits  the  infinite  beauties  of  the  Lord 
our  God  will  give  elevation  to  our  lives,  and  dignity 
to  our  actions  attainable  from  no  other  source.  If  we 
hallow  His  name,  we  shall  do  His  will,  and  earth  will 
become  a  foretaste  of  heaven. 

III.  The  worshipper  will  resemble  his  god  in  fate. 

We  may  observe  that  it  is  only  of  God's  people  that 
Micah  in  our  text  applies  the  words  '  for  ever  and  ever.' 
•  The  peoples' '  worship  perishes.  They  walk  for  a  time 
in  the  name  of  their  god,  but  what  comes  of  it  at  last 
is  veiled  in  silence.  It  is  Jehovah's  worshippers  who 
walk  in  His  name  for  ever  and  ever,  and  of  whom  the 
great  words  are  true,  *  Because  I  live  ye  shall  live  also.' 
We  may  be  sure  of  this  that  all  the  divine  attributes 
are  pledged  for  our  immortality ;  we  may  be  sure,  too, 
that  a  soul  which  here  follows  in  the  footsteps  of  Jesus, 
which  in  its  earthly  life  walked  in  the  name  of  the  Lord 
its  God,  will  continue  across  the  narrow  bridge,  and  go 
onward  'for  ever  and  ever'  in  direct  progress  in  the  same 
direction  in  which  it  began  on  earth.  The  imitation, 
which  is  the  practical  religion  of  every  Christian,  has 
for  its  only  possible  result  the  climax  of  likeness.  The 
partial  likeness  is  attained  on  earth  by  contemplation, 
by  aspiration,  and  by  effort ;  but  it  is  perfected  in  the 
heavens  by  the  perfect  vision  of  His  perfect  face.  '  We 
shall  be  like  Him,  for  we  shall  see  Him  as  He  is.'  Not 
till  it  has  reached  its  goal  can  the  Christian  life  begun 
here  be  conceived  as  ended.    It  shall  never  be  said  of 


220  MICAH  [CH.  V. 

any  one  who  tried  by  God's  help  to  walk  'in  the  name 
of  the  Lord '  that  he  was  lost  in  the  desert,  and  never 
reached  his  journey's  end.  The  peoples  who  walked  in 
the  name  of  any  false  god  will  find  their  path  ending 
as  on  the  edge  of  a  precipice,  or  in  an  unfathomable 
bog ;  loss,  and  woe,  and  shame  will  be  their  portion. 
But  'the  name  of  the  Lord  is  a  strong  tower,'  into 
which  whoever  will  may  run  and  be  safe,  and  to 
walk  in  the  name  of  the  Lord  is  to  walk  on  a  way 
'  that  shall  be  called  the  Way  of  Holiness,  whereon  no 
ravenous  beast  shall  go  up,  but  the  redeemed  shall  walk 
there,'  and  all  that  are  on  it  'shall  come  with  sing- 
ing to  Zion,  and  everlasting  joy  shall  be  upon  their 
heads.' 


•A  DEW  FROM  THE  LORD' 

'  The  remnant  of  Jacob  shall  be  in  the  midst  of  many  people  as  a  dew  from  the 
Lord,  that  tarrieth  not  for  man,  nor  waiteth  for  the  sons  of  men.'— Micah  v.  7. 

The  simple  natural  science  of  the  Hebrews  saw  a 
mystery  in  the  production  of  the  dew  on  a  clear  night, 
and  their  poetic  imagination  found  in  it  a  fit  symbol  for 
all  silent  and  gentle  influences  from  heaven  that  re- 
freshed and  quickened  parched  and  dusty  souls.  Created 
by  an  inscrutable  process  in  silence  and  darkness,  the 
dewdrops  lay  innumerable  on  the  dry  plains  and  hung 
from  every  leaf  and  thorn,  each  little  globule  a  perfect 
sphere  that  reflected  the  sun,  and  twinkled  back  the 
beams  in  its  own  little  rainbow.  Where  they  fell  the 
scorched  vegetation  lifted  its  drooping  head.  That  is 
what  Israel  is  to  be  in  the  world,  says  Micah.  He  saw 
very  deep  into  God's  mind  and  into  the  function  of  the 
nation. 
It  may  be  a  question  as  to  whether  the  text  refers 


V.7]        *A  DEW  FROM  THE  LORD'        221 

more  especially  to  the  place  and  office  of  Israel  when 
planted  in  its  own  land,  or  when  dispersed  among  the 
nations.  For,  as  you  see,  he  speaks  of  ',the  remnant  of 
Jacob '  as  if  he  was  thinking  of  the  survivors  of  some 
great  calamity  which  had  swept  away  the  greater  por- 
tion of  the  nation.  Both  things  are  true.  When  settled 
in  its  own  land,  Israel's  office  was  to  teach  the  nations 
God ;  when  dispersed  among  the  Gentiles,  its  office 
ought  to  have  been  the  same.  But  be  that  as  it  may,  the 
conception  here  set  forth  is  as  true  to-day  as  ever  it  was. 
For  the  prophetic  teachings,  rooted  though  they  may  be 
in  the  transitory  circumstances  of  a  tiny  nation,  are 

*  not  for  an  age,  but  for  all  time,'  and  we  get  a  great 
deal  nearer  the  heart  of  them  when  we  grasp  the  per- 
manent truths  that  underlie  them,  than  when  we 
learnedly  exhume  the  dead  history  which  was  their 
occasion. 

Micah's  message  comes  to  all  Christians,  and  very 
eminently  to  English  Christians.  The  subject  of 
Christian  missions  is  before  us  to-day,  and  some 
thoughts  in  the  line  of  this  great  text  may  not  be 
inappropriate. 

We  have  here,  then, 

I.  The  function  of  each  Christian  in  his  place. 

'  The  remnant  of  Jacob  shall  be  as  a  dew  from  the 
Lord  in  the  midst  of  many  nations.'  WTiat  made  Israel 
'  as  a  dew '  ?  One  thing  only ;  its  religion,  its  knowledge 
of  God,  and  its  consequent  purer  morality.  It  could 
teach  Greece  no  philosophy,  no  art,  no  refinement,  no 
sensitiveness  to  the  beautiful.  It  could  teach  Rome  no 
lessons  of  policy  or  government.  It  could  bring  no 
wisdom  to  Egypt,  no  power  or  wealth  to  Assyria.  But 
God  lit  His  candle  and  set  it  on  a  candlestick,  that  it 

•  might  give  light  to  all  that  were  in  the  house.'    The 


222  MIC  AH  [CH.  v. 

same  thing  is  true  about  Christian  people.  We  cannot 
teach  the  world  science,  we  cannot  teach  it  philosophy 
or  art,  but  we  can  teach  it  God.  Now  the  possibility 
brings  with  it  the  obligation.  The  personal  experience 
of  Jesus  Christ  in  our  hearts,  as  the  dew  that  brings  to 
us  life  and  fertility,  carries  with  it  a  commission  as 
distinct  and  imperative  as  if  it  had  been  pealed  into 
each  single  ear  by  a  voice  from  heaven.  That  which 
made  Israel  the  '  dew  amidst  many  nations,'  parched  for 
want  of  it,  makes  Christian  men  and  women  fit  to  fill 
the  analogous  office,  and  calls  upon  them  to  discharge 
the  same  functions.  For — in  regard  to  all  our  posses- 
sions, and  therefore  most  eminently  and  imperatively 
in  regard  to  the  best — that  which  we  have,  we  have  as 
stewards,  and  the  Gospel,  as  the  Apostle  found,  was 
not  only  given  to  him  for  his  own  individual  enjoy- 
ment, elevation,  ennobling,  emancipation,  salvation, 
but  was  'committed  to  his  charge,'  and  he  was 
'  entrusted '  with  it,  as  he  says,  as  a  sacred  deposit. 

Remember,  too,  that,  strange  as  it  may  seem,  the 
only  way  by  which  that  knowledge  of  God  which  was 
bestowed  upon  Israel  could  become  the  possession  of 
the  world  was  by  its  first  of  all  being  made  the  posses- 
sion of  a  few.  People  talk  about  the  unfairness,  the 
harshness,  of  the  providential  arrangement  by  which 
the  whole  world  was  not  made  participant  of  the 
revelation  which  was  granted  to  Israel.  The  fire  is 
gathered  on  to  a  hearth.  Does  that  mean  that  the 
corners  of  the  room  are  left  uncared  for?  No!  the 
brazier  is  in  the  middle — as  Palestine  was,  even  geo- 
graphically in  the  centre  of  the  then  civilised  world — 
that  from  the  centre  the  beneficent  warmth  might 
radiate  and  give  heat  as  well  as  light  to  '  all  them  that 
are  in  the  house.' 


V.7]        *  A  DEW  FROM  THE  LORD'        223 

So  it  is  in  regard  to  all  the  great  possessions  of  the 
race.  Art,  literature,  science,  political  wisdom,  they  are 
all  intrusted  to  a  few  who  are  made  their  apostles ;  and 
the  purpose  is  their  universal  diffusion  from  these 
human  centres.  It  is  in  the  line  of  the  analogy  of  all 
the  other  gifts  of  God  to  humanity,  that  chosen  men 
should  be  raised  up  in  whom  the  life  is  lodged,  that  it 
may  be  diffused. 

So  to  us  the  message  comes  :  •  The  Lord  hath  need  of 
thee.'  Christ  has  died  ;  the  Cross  is  the  world's  redemp- 
tion. Christ  lives  that  He  may  apply  the  power  and 
the  benefits  of  His  death  and  of  His  risen  life  to  all 
humanity.  But  the  missing  link  between  the  all- 
sufficient  redemption  that  is  in  Christ  Jesus,  and  the 
actual  redemption  of  the  world,  is  '  the  remnant  of 
Jacob,'  the  Christian  Church  which  is  to  be  'in  the 
midst  of  many  people,  as  a  dew  from  the  Lord.' 

Now,  that  diffusion  from  individual  centres  of  the 
life  that  is  in  Jesus  Christ  is  the  chiefest  reason — or  at 
all  events,  is  one  chief  reason — for  the  strange  and  in- 
extricable intertwining  in  modern  society,  of  saint  and 
sinner,  of  Christian  and  non-Christian.  The  seed  is 
sown  among  the  thorns  ;  the  wheat  springs  up  amongst 
the  tares.  Their  roots  are  so  matted  together  that  no 
hand  can  separate  them.  In  families,  in  professions,  in 
business  relations,  in  civil  life,  in  national  life,  both 
grow  together.  God  sows  His  seed  thin  that  all  the 
field  may  smile  in  harvest.  The  salt  is  broken  up  into 
many  minute  particles  and  rubbed  into  that  which  it  is 
to  preserve  from  corruption.  The  remnant  of  Jacob  is 
in  the  viidst  of  many  peoples ;  and  you  and  I  are  en- 
compassed by  those  who  need  our  Christ,  and  who  do 
not  know  Him  or  love  Him ;  and  one  great  reason  for 
the  close  intertwining  is  that,  scattered,  we  may  diffuse, 


224  MICAH  [oh.  v. 

and  that  at  all  points  the  world  may  be  in  contact  with 
those  who  ought  to  be  working  to  preserve  it  from 
putrefaction  and  decay. 

Now  there  are  two  ways  by  which  this  function  may 
be  discharged,  and  in  which  it  is  incumbent  upon  every 
Christian  man  to  make  his  contribution,  be  it  greater 
or  smaller,  to  the  discharge  of  it.  The  one  is  by  direct 
efforts  to  impart  to  others  the  knowledge  of  God  in 
Jesus  Christ  which  we  have,  and  which  we  profess  to 
be  the  very  root  of  our  lives.  We  can  all  do  that  if  we 
will,  and  we  are  here  to  do  it.  Every  one  of  us  has 
somebody  or  other  close  to  us,  bound  to  us,  perhaps, 
by  the  tie  of  kindred  and  love,  who  will  listen  to  us 
more  readily  than  to  anybody  else.  Christian  men  and 
women,  have  you  utilised  these  channels  which  God 
Himself,  by  the  arrangements  of  society,  has  dug  for 
you,  that  through  them  you  may  pour  upon  some 
thirsty  ground  the  water  of  life  ?  We  could  also  help, 
and  help '  far  more  than  any  of  us  do,  in  associated 
efforts  for  the  same  purpose.  The  direct  obligation  to 
direct  efforts  to  impart  the  Gospel  cannot  be  shirked, 
though,  alas  !  it  is  far  too  often  ignored  by  us  profess- 
ing Christians. 

But  there  is  another  way  by  which  •  the  remnant  of 
Jacob  'is  to  be  •  a  dew  from  the  Lord,'  and  that  is  by 
trying  to  bring  to  bear  Christian  thoughts  and  Christian 
principles  upon  all  the  relations  of  life  in  which  we  stand, 
and  upon  all  the  societies,  be  they  greater  or  smaller — 
the  family,  the  city,  or  the  nation — of  which  we  form 
parts.  We  have  heard  a  great  deal  lately  about  what 
people  that  know  very  little  about  it,  are  pleased  to  call 
*  the  Nonconformist  conscience.'  I  take  the  compliment, 
which  is  not  intended,  but  is  conveyed  by  the  word. 
But  I   venture    to  say  that   what    is   meant,   is  not 


V.7]        'A  DEW  FROM  THE  LOUD'        225 

the  *  Nonconformist '  conscience,  it  is  the  Christian 
conscience.  We  Nonconformists  have  no  monopoly, 
thank  God,  of  that.  Nay,  rather,  in  some  respects,  our 
friends  in  the  Anglican  churches  are  teaching  some  of 
us  a  lesson  as  to  the  application  of  Christian  principles 
to  civic  duty  and  to  national  life.  I  beseech  you, 
although  I  do  not  mean  to  dwell  upon  that  point  at  all 
at  this  time,  to  ask  yourselves  whether,  as  citizens, 
the  vices,  the  godlessness,  the  miseries — the  removable 
miseries — of  our  great  town  populations,  lie  upon  your 
hearts.  Have  you  ever  lifted  a  finger  to  abate  drunken- 
ness ?  Have  you  ever  done  anything  to  help  to  make 
it  possible  that  the  masses  of  our  town  communities 
should  live  in  places  better  than  the  pigsties  in  which 
many  of  them  have  to  wallow  ?  Have  you  any  care  for 
the  dignity,  the  purity,  the  Christianity  of  our  civic 
rulers ;  and  do  you,  to  the  extent  of  your  ability,  try  to 
ensure  that  Christ's  teaching  shall  govern  the  life  of 
our  cities?  And  the  same  question  may  be  put  yet 
more  emphatically  with  regard  to  wider  subjects, 
namely,  the  national  life  and  the  national  action, 
whether  in  regard  to  war  or  in  regard  to  other 
pressing  subjects  for  national  consideration.  I  do 
not  touch  upon  these;  I  only  ask  you  to  remember 
the  grand  ideal  of  my  text,  which  applies  to  the 
narrowest  circle — the  family ;  and  to  the  wider  circles 
—the  city  and  the  nation,  as  well  as  to  the  world. 
Time  was  when  a  bastard  piety  shrank  back  from 
intermeddling  with  these  affairs  and  gathered  up  its 
skirts  about  it  in  an  ecstasy  of  unwholesome  unworld- 
liness.  There  is  not  much  danger  of  that  now,  when 
Christian  men  are  in  the  full  swim  of  the  currents  of 
civic,  professional,  literary,  national  life.  But  I  will  tell 
you  of  what  there  is  a  danger — Christian  men  and  women 

P 


226  MICAH      '  [CH.  V. 

moving  in  their  families,  going  into  town  councils, 
going  into  Parliament,  going  to  the  polling-booths,  and 
leaving  their  Christianity  behind  them.  *  The  remnant 
of  Jacob  shall  be  as  a  dew  from  the  Lord.' 

Now  let  me  turn  for  a  moment  to  a  second  point, 
and  that  is 

II.  The  function  of  English  Christians  in  the  world. 

I  have  suggested  in  an  earlier  part  of  this  sermon 
that  possibly  the  application  of  this  text  originally  was 
to  the  scattered  remnant.  Be  that  as  it  may,  wherever 
you  go,  you  find  the  Jew  and  the  Englishman.  I  need 
not  dwell  upon  the  ubiquity  of  our  race.  I  need  not 
point  you  to  the  fact  that,  in  all  probability,  our 
language  is  destined  to  be  the  world's  language  some 
day.  I  need  do  nothing  more  than  recall  the  fact  that 
a  man  may  go  on  board  ship,  in  Liverpool  or  London, 
and  go  round  the  world ;  everywhere  he  sees  the  Union 
Jack,  and  everywhere  he  lands  upon  British  soil.  The 
ubiquity  of  the  scattered  Englishman  needs  no  illustra- 
tion. 

But  I  do  wish  to  remind  you  that  that  ubiquity  has 
its  obligation.  We  hear  a  great  deal  to-day  about 
Imperialism,  about  'the  Greater  Britain,'  about  'the 
expansion  of  England.'  And  on  one  side  all  that  new 
atmosphere  of  feeling  is  good,  for  it  speaks  of  a  vivid 
consciousness  which  is  all  to  the  good  in  the  pulsations 
of  the  national  life.  But  there  is  another  side  to  it 
that  is  not  so  good.  What  is  the  expansion  sought  for  ? 
Trade  ?  Yes !  necessarily  ;  and  no  man  who  lives  in 
Lancashire  will  speak  lightly  of  that  necessity.  Vulgar 
greed,  and  earth-hunger  ?  that  is  evil.  Glory  ?  that  is 
cruel,  blood-stained,  empty.  My  text  tells  us  why 
expansion  should  be  sought,  and  what  are  the  obliga- 
tions it  brings  with  it.    '  The  remnant  of  Jacob  shall  be 


T.7]        'A  DEW  FROM  THE  LORD*        227 

in  the  midst  of  many  people  as  a  dew  from  the  Lord.' 
There  are  two  kinds  of  Imperialism :  one  which  regards 
the  Empire  as  a  thing  for  the  advantage  of  us  here,  in 
this  little  land,  and  another  which  regards  it  as  a 
burden  that  God  has  laid  on  the  shoulders  of  the  men 
whom  John  Milton,  two  centuries  ago,  was  not  afraid 
to  call '  His  Englishmen.' 

Let  me  remind  you  of  two  contrasted  pictures  which 
will  give  far  more  forcibly  than  anything  I  can  say,  the 
two  points  of  view  from  which  our  world-wide  dominion 
may  be  regarded.  Here  is  one  of  them :  '  By  the  strength 
of  my  hand  I  have  done  it,  and  by  my  wisdom,  for  I  am 
prudent.  And  I  have  removed  the  bounds  of  the  people, 
and  have  robbed  their  treasures,  and  my  hand  hath 
found  as  a  nest  the  riches  of  the  people  ;  and  as  one 
gathereth  eggs  that  are  left,  have  I  gathered  all  the 
earth ;  and  there  was  none  that  moved  a  wing,  or 
opened  a  mouth,  or  peeped.'  That  is  the  voice  of  the 
lust  for  Empire  for  selfish  advantages.  And  here  is 
the  other  one:  'The  kings  of  Tarshish  and  of  the  isles 
shall  bring  presents ;  yea,  all  kings  shall  fall  down 
before  Him ;  all  nations  shall  serve  Him,  for  He  shall 
deliver  the  needy  when  he  crieth,  the  poor  also,  and 
him  that  hath  no  helper.  He  shall  redeem  their  soul 
from  deceit  and  violence,  and  precious  shall  their  blood 
be  in  His  sight.'  That  is  the  voice  that  has  learned : 
'He  that  is  greatest  among  you,  let  him  be  your 
servant ' ;  and  that  the  dominion  founded  on  unselfish 
surrender  for  others  is  the  only  dominion  that  will  last. 
Brethren !  that  is  the  spirit  in  which  alone  England  will 
keep  its  Empire  over  the  world. 

I  need  not  remind  you  that  the  gift  which  we  have 
to  carry  to  the  heathen  nations,  the  subject  peoples 
who  are  under  the  segis  of  our  laws,  is  not  merely  our 


228  MICAH  [CH.V. 

literature,  our  science,  our  Western  civilisation,  still  less 
the  products  of  our  commerce,  for  all  of  which  somie  of 
them  are  asking ;  but  it  is  the  gift  that  they  do  not  ask 
for.  The  dew  '  waiteth  not  for  man,  nor  tarrieth  for 
the  sons  of  men.'  We  have  to  create  the  demand  by 
bringing  the  supply.  We  have  to  carry  Christ's  Gospel 
as  the  greatest  gift  that  we  have  in  our  hands. 

And  now,  I  was  going  to  have  said  a  word,  lastly,  but 
I  see  it  can  only  be  a  word,  about — 

III.  The  failure  to  fulfil  the  function. 

Israel  failed.  Pharisaism  was  the  end  of  it — a  hug- 
ging itself  in  the  possession  of  the  gift  which  it  did  not 
appreciate,  and  a  bitter  contempt  of  the  nations,  and 
so  destruction  came,  and  the  fire  on  the  hearth  was 
scattered  and  died  out,  and  the  vineyard  was  taken 
from  them  and  '  given  to  a  nation  bringing  forth  the 
fruits  thereof.'  Change  the  name,  as  the  Latin  poet 
says,  and  the  story  is  told  about  us.  England  largely 
fails  in  this  function ;  as  witness  in  India  godless 
civilians  ;  as  witness  on  every  palm-shaded  coral  beach 
in  the  South  Seas,  profligate  beach-combers,  drunken 
sailors,  unscrupulous  traders ;  as  witness  the  dying  out 
of  races  by  diseases  imported  with  profligacy  and  gin 
from  this  land.  •  A  dew  from  the  Lord ! ' ;  say  rather  a 
malaria  from  the  devil !  *  By  you,'  said  the  Prophet, 
'  is  the  name  of  God  blasphemed  among  the  Gentiles.' 
By  Englishmen  the  missionary's  efforts  are,  in  a  hundred 
cases,  neutralised,  or  hampered  if  not  neutralised. 

We  have  failed  because,  as  Christian  people,  we  have 
not  been  adequately  in  earnest.  No  man  can  say  with 
truth  that  the  churches  of  England  are  awake  to  the 
imperative  obligation  of  this  missionary  enterprise.  '  If 
God  spared  not  the  natural  branches,  take  heed  lest  He 
spare  not  thee.*     Israel's  religion  was  not  diffusive, 


V.7]         'A  DEW  FROM  THE  LORD*        229 

therefore  it  corrupted;  Israel's  religion  did  not  reach 
out  a  hand  to  the  nations,  therefore  its  heart  was 
paralysed  and  stricken.  They  who  bring  the  Gospel  to 
others  increase  their  own  hold  upon  it.  There  is  a  joy 
of  activity,  there  is  a  firmer  faith,  as  new  evidences  of 
its  power  are  presented  before  them.  There  is  the 
blessing  that  comes  down  upon  all  faithful  discharge 
of  duty ;  '  If  the  house  be  not  worthy,  your  peace  shall 
return  to  you.'  After  all,  our  Empire  rests  on  moral 
foundations,  and  if  it  is  administered  by  us — and  we 
each  have  part  of  the  responsibility  for  all  that  is 
done — on  the  selfish  ground  of  only  seeking  the  advan- 
tage of  '  the  predominant  partner,'  then  our  hold  will 
be  loosened.  There  is  no  such  cement  of  empire  as  a 
common  religion.  If  we  desire  to  make  these  subject 
peoples  loyal  fellow-subjects,  we  must  make  them  true 
fellow-worshippers.  The  missionary  holds  India  for 
England  far  more  strongly  than  the  soldier  does.  If  we 
apply  Christian  principles  to  our  administration  of  our 
Empire,  then  instead  of  its  being  knit  together  by  iron 
bands,  it  will  be  laced  together  by  the  intertwining 
tendrils  of  the  hearts  of  those  who  are  possessors  of 
'  like  precious  faith.'  Brethren,  there  is  another  saying 
in  the  Old  Testament,  about  the  dew.  '  I  will  be  as  the 
dew  unto  Israel,'  says  God  through  the  Prophet.  We 
must  have  Him  as  the  dew  for  our  own  souls  first. 
Then  only  shall  we  be  able  to  discharge  the  office  laid 
upon  us,  to  be  in  the  midst  of  many  peoples  as  '  dew 
from  th(3  Lord.'  If  our  fleece  is  wet  and  we  leave  the 
ground  dry,  our  fleece  will  soon  be  dry,  though  the 
ground  may  be  bedewed. 


GOD'S  REQUIREMENTS  AND  GOD'S  GIFT 

'What  doth  the  Lord  require  of  thee,  but  to  do  justly,  and  to  love  mercy,  and 
to  walk  humbly  with  thy  God?'— Micah  vi.  8. 

This  is  the  Prophet's  answer  to  a  question  which  he 
puts  into  the  mouth  of  his  hearers.  They  had  the 
superstitious  estimate  of  the  worth  of  sacrifice,  which 
conceives  that  the  external  offering  is  pleasing  to  God, 
and  can  satisfy  for  sin.  Micah,  like  his  great  contem- 
porary Isaiah,  and  the  most  of  the  prophets,  wages 
war  against  that  misconception  of  sacrifice,  but  does 
not  thereby  protest  against  its  use.  To  suppose  that 
he  does  so  is  to  misunderstand  his  whole  argument. 
Another  misuse  of  the  words  of  my  text  is  by  no  means 
uncommon  to-day.  One  has  heard  people  say,  'We 
are  plain  men ;  we  do  not  understand  your  theo- 
logical subtleties  ;  we  do  not  quite  see  what  you  mean 
by  "  Repentance  toward  God,  and  faith  in  Jesus  Christ." 
"  To  do  justly,  and  to  love  mercy,  and  to  walk  humbly 
with  my  God,"  that  is  my  religion,  and  I  leave  all  the 
rest  to  you.'  That  is  our  religion  too,  but  notice  that 
word  '  require.'  It  is  a  harsh  word,  and  if  it  is  the  last 
word  to  be  said  about  God's  relation  to  men,  then  a 
great  shadow  has  fallen  upon  life. 

But  there  is  another  word  which  Micah  but  dimly 
caught  uttered  amidst  the  thunders  of  Sinai,  and  which 
you  and  I  have  heard  far  more  clearly.  The  Prophet  read 
off  rightly  God's  requirements,  but  he  had  not  anything 
to  say  about  God's  gifts.  So  his  word  is  a  half-truth, 
and  the  more  clearly  it  is  seen,  and  the  more  earnestly 
a  man  tries  to  live  up  to  the  standard  of  the  require- 
ments laid  down  here,  the  more  will  he  feel  that  there 

230 


V.8]  GOD'S  REQUIREMENTS  AND  GIFT  231 

is  something  else  needed,  and  the  more  will  he  see  that 
the  great  central  peculiarity  and  glory  of  Christianity 
is  not  that  it  reiterates  or  alters  God's  requirements, 
but  that  it  brings  into  view  God's  gifts.  '  To  do  justly, 
to  love  mercy,  to  walk  humbly  with  our  God,'  is 
possible  only  through  repentance  towards  God,  and 
faith  in  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ.  And  if  you  suppose 
that  these  words  of  my  text  disclose  the  whole  truth 
about  God's  relation  to  men,  and  men's  to  God,  you 
have  failed  to  apprehend  the  flaming  centre  of  the 
Light  that  shines  from  heaven. 

I.  So,  then,  the  first  thing  that  I  wish  to  suggest  is 
God's  requirements. 

Now,  I  do  not  need  to  say  more  than  just  a  word  or 
two  about  the  summing-up  in  my  text  of  the  plain, 
elementary  duties  of  morality  and  religion.  It  covers 
substantially  the  same  ground,  in  a  condensed  form,  as 
does  the  Decalogue,  only  that  Moses  began  with  the 
deepest  thing  and  worked  outwards,  as  it  were ;  laying 
the  foundation  in  a  true  relation  to  God,  which  is  the 
most  important,  and  from  which  will  follow  the  true 
relation  to  men.  Micah  begins  at  the  other  end,  and 
starting  with  the  lesser,  the  more  external,  the  purely 
human,  works  his  way  inwards  to  that  which  is  the 
centre  and  the  source  of  all. 

'To  do  justly,'  that  is  elementary  morality  in  two 
words.  Whatever  a  man  has  a  right  to  claim  from 
you,  give  him ;  that  is  the  sum  of  duty.  And  yet  not 
altogether  so,  for  we  all  know  the  difference  between  a 
righteous  man  and  a  good  man,  and  how,  if  there  is 
only  rigidly  righteous  action,  there  is  something  want- 
ing to  the  very  righteousness  of  the  action  and  to  the 
completeness  of  the  character.  *  To  do  '  is  not  enough ; 
we  must  get  to  the  heart,  and  so  '  love  mercy.'    Justice 


232  MICAH  [CH.  vi. 

is  not  all.  If  each  man  gets  his  deserts,  as  Shakespeare 
says,  *who  of  us  shall  scape  whipping?'  There  must 
be  the  mercy  as  well  as  the  justice.  In  a  very  deep 
sense  no  man  renders  to  his  fellows  all  that  his  fellows 
have  a  right  to  expect  of  him,  who  does  not  render  to 
them  mercy.  And  so  in  a  very  deep  sense,  mercy  is 
part  of  justice,  and  you  have  not  given  any  poor 
creature  all  that  that  poor  creature  has  a  right  to 
look  for  from  you,  unless  you  have  given  him  all  the 
gracious  and  gentle  charities  of  heart  and  hand. 
Justice  and  mercy  do,  in  the  deepest  view,  run  into  one. 

Then  Micah  goes  deeper.  '  And  to  walk  humbly  with 
thy  God.'  Some  people  would  say  that  this  summary 
of  the  divine  requirements  is  defective,  because  there  is 
nothing  in  it  about  a  man's  duty  to  himself,  which  is  as 
much  a  duty  as  his  duty  to  his  fellows,  or  his  duty  to 
God.  But  there  is  a  good  deal  of  my  duty  to  myself 
crowded  into  that  one  word,  '  humbly.'  For  I  suppose 
we  might  almost  say  that  the  basis  of  all  our  obliga- 
tions to  our  own  selves  lies  in  this,  that  we  shall  take 
the  right  view — that  is,  the  lowly  view — of  ourselves. 

ut  I  pass  that. 

•To  walk  humbly  with  thy  God.'  'Can  two  walk 
together  unless  they  be  agreed  ? '  For  walking  with 
God  there  must  be  communion,  based  in  love,  and 
resulting  in  imitation.  And  that  communion  must  be 
constant,  and  run  through  all  the  life,  like  a  golden 
thread  through  some  web.  So,  then,  here  is  the  mini- 
mum of  the  divine  requirements,  to  give  everybody  what 
he  has  a  right  to,  including  the  mercy  to  which  he  has 
a  right,  to  have  a  lowly  estimate  of  myself,  and  to  live 
continually  grasping  the  hand  of  God,  and  conscious 
of  His  overshadowing  wing  at  all  moments,  and  of 
conformity  to  His  will  at  every  step  of  the  road.    That 


V.8]  GOD'S  REQUIREMENTS  AND  GIFT  233 

is  the  minimum ;  and  the  people  who  so  glibly  say, 
'  That  is  my  religion,'  have  little  consciousness  of  how 
far-reaching  and  how  deep-down-going  the  require- 
ments of  this  text  are.  The  requirements  result  from 
the  very  nature  of  God,  and  our  relation  to  Him,  and 
they  are  endorsed  by  our  own  consciences,  for  we  all 
know  that  these,  and  nothing  less  than  these  are  the 
duties  that  we  owe  to  God.  So  much  for  God's  require- 
ments. 

II.  Our  failure. 

There  is  not  one  of  us  that  has  come  up  to  the 
standard.  Man  after  man  may  be  conceived  of  as 
bringing  in  his  hands  the  actions  of  his  life,  and  laying 
them  in  the  awful  scales  which  God's  hand  holds.  In 
the  one  are  God's  requirements,  in  the  other  my  life; 
and  in  every  case  down  goes  the  weight,  and  '  weighed 
in  the  balances  we  are  altogether  lighter  than  vanity.' 
We  stand  before  the  great  Master  in  the  school,  and 
one  by  one  we  take  up  our  copybooks ;  and  there  is  not 
one  of  them  that  is  not  black  with  blots  and  erasures 
and  swarming  with  errors.  The  great  cliff  stands  in 
front  of  us  with  the  victor's  prize  on  its  topmost  ledge, 
and  man  after  man  tries  to  climb,  and  falls  bruised  and 
broken  at  the  base.  '  There  is  none  righteous,  no,  not 
one.'  Micah's  requirements  come  to  every  man  that 
will  honestly  take  stock  of  his  life  and  his  character 
as  the  statement  of  an  unreached  and  unreachable 
ideal  to  which  he  never  has  climbed  nor  ever  can  climb. 

Oh,  brethren !  if  these  words  are  all  the  words  that 
are  to  be  said  about  God  and  me,  then  I  know  not 
what  lies  before  the  enlightened  conscience  except 
shuddering  despair,  and  a  paralysing  consciousness  of 
inevitable  failure.  I  beseech  you,  take  these  words, 
and  go  apart  with  them,  and  test  your  daily  life  by 


234.  MICAH  [CH.VI. 

them.  God  requires  me  to  do  justly.  Does  there  not 
rise  before  my  memory  many  an  act  in  which,  in 
regard  to  persons  and  in  regard  to  circumstances,  I 
have  fallen  beneath  that  requirement?  He  requires 
tne  '  to  love  mercy.'  He  requires  me  '  to  walk  humbly,' 
and  I  have  often  been  inflated  and  self-conceited  and 
presumptuous.  He  requires  me  to  walk  with  Himself, 
and  I  have  shaken  away  His  hand  from  me,  and  passed 
whole  days  without  ever  thinking  of  Him,  and  'the 
God  in  whose  hands  '  my  '  breath  is,  and  whose  are  all ' 
my  'ways,'  I  have  'not  glorified.'  I  cannot  hammer 
this  truth  into  your  consciences.  You  have  to  do  it  for 
yourselves.  But  I  beseech  you,  recognise  the  fact  that 
you  are  implicated  in  the  universal  failure,  and  that 
God's  requirement  is  God's  condemnation  of  each  of  us. 
If,  then,  that  is  true,  that  all  have  come  short  of  the 
requirement,  then  there  should  follow  a  universal  sense 
of  guiltjfor  there  is  the  universal  fact  of  guilt,  whether 
there  be  the  sense  of  it  or  not.  There  must  follow,  too, 
consequences  resulting  from  the  failure  of  each  of  us  to 
comply  with  these  divine  requirements,  consequences 
very  alarming,  very  fatal;  and  there  must  follow  a 
darkening  of  the  thought  of  God.  '  I  knew  thee  that 
thou  wert  an  austere  man,  reaping  where  thou  didst 
not  sow,  and  gathering  where  thou  didst  not  straw,' 
That  is  the  God  of  all  the  people  who  take  my  text  as 
the  last  word  of  their  religion — God  '  requires  of  me. 
The  blessed  sun  in  the  heavens  becomes  a  lurid  ball  of 
fire  when  it  is  seen  through  the  mist  of  such  a  concep- 
tion of  the  divine  character,  and  its  relation  to  men. 
There  is  nothing  that  so  drapes  the  sky  in  darkness, 
and  hides  out  the  great  light  of  God,  as  the  thought 
of  His  requirements  as  the  last  thought  we  cherish 
concerning  Him. 


V.8]  GOD'SREQUIREMENTS  AND  GIFT  235 

There  follows,  too,  upon  this  conception,  and  the 
failure  that  results  to  fulfil  the  requirements,  a  hope- 
lessness as  to  ever  accomplishing  that  which  is  de- 
manded of  us.  Who  amongst  us  is  there  that,  looking 
back  upon  his  past  in  so  far  as  it  has  been  shaped  by 
his  own  effort  and  his  own  unaided  strength,  can  look 
forward  to  a  future  with  any  hope  that  it  will  mend 
the  past  ?  Brethren !  experience  teaches  us  that  we 
have  not  fulfilled,  and  cannot  fulfil,  what  remains  our 
plain  duty,  notwithstanding  our  inability  to  discharge 
it — viz.,  'To  do  justly,  and  to  love  mercy,  and  to  walk 
humbly  with  our  God.'  To  think  of  God's  requirements, 
and  of  my  own  failure,  is  the  sure  way  to  paralyse  all 
activity;  just  as  that  man  in  the  parable  who  said, 
'Thou  art  an  austere  man,'  w^ent  away  and  hid  his 
talent  in  the  earth.  To  think  of  God's  requirements 
and  my  own  failures,  if  heaven  has  nothing  more  to 
say  to  me  than  this  stern  '  Thou  shalt,'  is  the  short  way 
to  despair.  And  that  is  why  most  of  us  prefer  to  be 
immersed  in  the  trivialities  of  daily  life  rather  than 
to  think  of  God,  and  of  what  He  asks  from  us.  For 
the  only  way  by  which  some  of  us  can  keep  our  equa- 
nimity and  our  cheerfulness  is  by  ignoring  Him  and 
forgetting  what  He  demands,  and  never  taking  stock 
of  our  own  lives. 

III.  Lastly,  my  text  leads  us  to  think  of  God's  gift. 

I  said  it  is  a  half-truth,  for  it  only  tells  us  of  what 
He  desires  us  to  be,  and  does  not  tell  us  of  how  we  may 
be  it.  It  is  meant,  like  the  law  of  which  it  is  a  condensa- 
tion, to  be  the  pedagogue,  to  lead  the  child  to  Jesus 
Christ,  the  true  Master,  and  the  true  Gift  of  God. 

God  '  requires.'  Yes,  and  He  requires,  in  order  that 
we  should  say  to  Him,  '  Lord,  Thou  hast  a  right  to  ask 
this,  and  it  is  my  blessedness  to  give  it,  but  I  cannot. 


236  MIC  AH  [CH  VI. 

Do  Thou  give  me  what  Thou  dost  require,  and  then  I 
can.' 

The  gift  of  God  is  Jesus  Christ,  and  that  gift  meets 
all  our  failures.  I  have  spoken  of  the  sense  of  guilt 
that  rises  from  the  consciousness  of  failure  to  keep  the 
requirements  of  the  divine  law ;  and  the  gift  of  God 
deals  with  that.  It  comes  to  us  as  we  lie  wounded, 
bruised,  conscious  of  failure,  alarmed  for  results,  sen- 
sible of  guilt,  and  dreading  the  penalties,  and  it  says  to 
us,  '  Thine  iniquity  is  taken  away,  and  thy  sin  purged.' 
'  God  requires  of  thee  what  thou  hast  not  done.  Trust 
yourselves  to  Me,  and  all  iniquity  is  passed  from  your 
souls.' 

I  spoke  of  the  hopelessness  of  future  performance, 
which  results  from  experience  of  past  failures  ;  and  the 
gift  of  God  deals  with  that.  You  cannot  meet  the 
requirements.  Christ  will  put  His  Spirit  into  your 
spirits,  if  you  will  trust  yourselves  to  Him,  and  then 
you  will  meet  them,  for  the  things  which  are  impos- 
sible with  men  are  possible  with  God.  So,  if  led  by 
Micah,  we  pass  from  God's  requirements  to  His  gifts, 
look  at  the  change  in  the  aspect  which  God  bears  to 
us.  He  is  no  longer  standing  strict  to  mark,  and  stern 
to  judge  and  condemn :  but  bending  down  graciously 
to  help.  His  last  word  to  us  is  not  '  Thou  shalt  do '  but 
•I  will  give.'  His  utterance  in  the  Gospel  is  not  'do,' 
but  it  is  *take';  and  the  vision  of  God,  which  shines 
out  upon  us  from  the  life  and  from  the  Cross  of  Jesus 
Christ,  is  not  that  of  a  great  Taskmaster,  but  that  of 
Him  who  helps  all  our  weakness,  and  makes  it  strength. 
A  God  who  'requires'  paralyses  men,  shuts  men  out 
from  hope  and  joy  and  fellowship ;  a  God  wlio  gives 
draws  men  to  His  heart,  and  makes  them  diligent  in 
fulfilling  all  His  blessed  requirements. 


V.8]  GOD'S  REQUIREMENTS  AND  GIFT  237 

Think  of  the  difference  which  the  conception  of 
God  as  giving  makes  to  the  spirit  in  which  we  work. 
No  longer,  like  the  Israelites  in  Egypt,  do  we  try  to 
make  bricks  without  straw,  and  break  our  hearts  over 
our  failures,  or  desperately  abandon  the  attempt,  and 
live  in  neglect  of  God  and  His  will ;  but  joyfully,  with 
the  clear  confidence  that  '  our  labour  is  not  in  vain  in 
the  Lord,'  we  seek  to  keep  the  commandments  which 
we  have  learned  to  be  the  expressions  of  His  love. 
One  of  the  Fathers  puts  all  in  one  lovely  sentence : 

•  Give  what  Thou  commandest,  and  command  what 
Thou  wilt.' 

Think,  too,  of  the  difference  which  this  conception 
of  the  giving  rather  than  of  the  requiring  God  brings 
into  what  we  have  to  do.  We  have  not  to  begin  with 
effort,  we  have  to  begin  with  faith.  The  fountain 
must  be  filled  from  the  spring  before  it  can  send  up 
its  crystal  pillar  flashing  in  the  sunlight ;  and  we  must 
receive  by  our  trust  the  power  to  will  and  to  do.  First 
fill  the  lamp  with  oil,  and  let  the  Master  light  it,  and 
then  let  its  blaze  beam  forth.  First,  we  have  to  go  to 
the  giving  God,  with  thanks  *unto  Him  for  His  un- 
speakable gift';  and  then  we  have  to  say  to  Him, 
'Thou  hast  given  me  Thy  Son.  What  dost  Thou  desire 
that  I  shall  give  to  Thee?'  We  have  first  to  accept 
the  gift,  and  then,  moved  by  the  mercy  of  God,  to  ask, 

*  Lord  1  what  wilt  Thou  have  me  to  do  ? ' 


HABAKKUK 

THE  IDEAL  DEVOUT  LIFE 

•  The  Lord  God  is  my  Strength,  and  He  will  make  my  feet  like  hinds'  feet,  and 
He  will  make  me  to  walk  upon  mine  high  places.'— Habakkuk  iii.  19. 

So  ends  one  of  the  most  magnificent  pieces  of  imag- 
inative poetry  in  Scripture  or  anywhere  else.  The 
singer  has  been  describing  a  great  delivering  mani- 
festation of  the  Most  High  God,  which,  though  he 
knew  it  was  for  the  deliverance  of  God's  people,  shed 
awe  and  terror  over  his  soul.  Then  he  gathers  himself 
together  to  vow  that  in  this  God,  thus  manifested  as 
the  God  of  his  salvation,  he  *  will  rejoice,'  whatever 
penury  or  privation  may  attach  to  his  outward  life. 
Lastly,  he  rises,  in  these  final  words,  to  the  appre- 
hension of  what  this  God,  thus  rejoiced  in,  will  become 
to  those  who  so  put  their  trust  and  their  gladness  upon 
Himself. 

The  expressions  are  of  a  highly  metaphorical  and 
imaginative  character,  but  they  admit  of  being  brought 
down  to  very  plain  facts,  and  they  tell  us  the  results  in 
heart  and  mind  of  true  faith  and  communion  with  God. 

It  is  to  be  noticed  that  a  parallel  saying,  almost 
verbatim  the  same  as  that  of  my  text,  occurs  in  the 
18th  psalm,  and  that  there,  too,  it  is  the  last  and  joyous 
result  of  a  tremendous  manifestation  of  the  delivering 
energy  of  God. 

Without  any  attempt  to  do  more  than  bring  out  the 

S38 


V.  19]       THE  IDEAL  DEVOUT  LIFE         239 

deep  meaning  of  the  words,  I  note  that  the  three  clauses 
of  our  text  present  three  aspects  of  what  our  lives  and 
ourselves  may  steadfastly  be  if  we,  too,  will  rejoice  in 
the  God  of  our  salvation. 

I.  First,  such  communion  with  God  brings  God  to  a 
man  for  his  strength. 

The  18th  psalm,  which  is  closely  parallel,  as  I  have 
remarked,  with  this  one,  gives  a  somewhat  different 
and  inferior  version  of  that  thought  when  it  says,  '  It 
is  the  Lord  that  girdeth  me  with  strength.'  But 
Habakkuk,  though  perhaps  he  could  not  have  put  into 
dogmatic  shape  all  that  he  meant,  had  come  farther 
than  that  with  this :  '  The  Lord  is  my  strength.'  He 
not  only  gives,  as  one  might  put  a  coin  into  the  hand 
of  a  beggar,  while  standing  separate  from  him  all  the 
while,  but  *  He  is  my  strength.' 

And  what  does  that  mean  ?  It  is  an  anticipation  of 
that  most  wonderful  and  highest  of  all  the  New  Testa- 
ment truths  which  the  Apostle  declared  when  he  said : 
'  I  can  do  all  things  in  Christ  which  strengtheneth  me 
within.'  It  is  the  anticipation  in  experience — which 
always  comes  before  dogmatic  formulas  that  reduce 
experiences  into  articulate  utterances,  of  what  the 
Apostle  recorded  when  he  said  that  he  had  heard  the 
voice  that  declared,  '  My  grace  is  sufficient  for  thee, 
and  My  strength  is  made  perfect  in  weakness.' 

Ah,  brother!  do  not  let  us  deprive  ourselves  of  the 
lofty  consolations  and  the  mysterious  influx  of  power 
which  may  be  ours,  if  we  will  open  our  eyes  to  see,  and 
our  hearts  to  receive,  what  is  really  the  central  bless- 
ing of  the  Gospel,  the  communication  through  the  same 
faith  as  Habakkuk  exercised  when  he  said,  '  I  will 
rejoice  in  the  God  of  my  salvation,'  of  an  actual  divine 
strength  to  dwell  in  and  manifest  itself  majestically 


240  HABAKKUK  [ch.  hi. 

and  triumphantly  through,  our  weakness.  •  The  Lord 
is  my  strength,'  and  if  we  will  rejoice  in  the  Lord  we 
shall  find  that  Habakkuk's  experience  was  lower  than 
ours,  inasmuch  as  he  knew  less  of  God  than  we  do ;  and 
we  shall  be  able  to  surpass  his  saying  with  the  other 
one  of  the  Prophet :  '  The  Lord  is  my  strength  and 
song ;  He  also  is  become  my  salvation.'  That  is  the 
first  blessing  that  this  ancient  believer,  out  of  the 
twilight  of  early  revelation,  felt  as  certain  to  come 
through  communion  with  God. 

II.  The  second  is  like  unto  it.  Such  rejoicing  com- 
munion with  God  will  give  light-footedness  in  the 
path  of  life. 

'  He  makes  my  feet  like  hinds'  feet.'  The  stag  is,  in 
all  languages  spoken  by  people  that  have  ever  seen  it, 
the  very  type  and  emblem  of  elastic,  springing  ease,  of 
light  and  bounding  gracefulness,  that  clears  every 
obstacle,  and  sweeps  swiftly  over  the  moor.  And  when 
this  singer,  or  his  brother  psalmist  in  the  other  psalm 
that  we  have  referred  to,  says,  '  Thou  makest  my  feet 
like  hinds'  feet,'  what  he  is  thinking  about  is  that  light 
and  easy,  springing,  elastic  gait,  that  swiftness  of 
advance.  What  a  contrast  that  is  to  the  way  in  which 
most  of  us  get  through  our  day's  work!  Plod,  plod, 
plod,  in  a  heavy-footed,  spiritless  grind,  like  that  with 
which  the  ploughman  toils  down  the  sticky  furrows 
of  a  field,  with  a  pound  of  clay  at  each  heel ;  or  like 
that  with  which  a  man  goes  wearied  home  from  his 
work  at  night.  The  monotony  of  trivial,  constantly 
recurring  doings,  the  fluctuations  in  the  thermometer 
of  our  own  spirits ;  the  stiff  bits  of  road  that  we  have 
all  to  encounter  sooner  or  later ;  and  as  days  go  on, 
our  diminishing  buoyancy  of  nature,  and  the  love  of 
walking  a  little  slower  than  we  used  to  do;  we  all 


V.  19]       THE  IDEAL  DEVOUT  LIFE        241 

know  these  things,  and  our  gait  is  affected  by  them. 
But  then  my  text  brings  a  bright  assurance,  that  swift 
and  easy  and  springing  as  the  course  of  a  stag  on  a 
free  hill-side  may  be  the  gait  with  which  we  run  the 
race  set  before  us. 

It  is  the  same  thought,  under  a  somewhat  different 
garb,  which  the  Apostle  has  when  he  tells  us  that  the 
Christian  soldier  ought  to  have  his  'feet  shod  with  the 
alacrity  that  comes  from  the  gospel  of  peace.'  We  are 
to  be  always  ready  to  run,  and  to  run  with  light  hearts 
when  we  do.  That  is  a  possible  result  of  Christian 
communion,  and  ought,  far  more  than  it  is,  to  be  an 
achieved  reality  with  each  of  us.  Of  course  physical 
conditions  vary.  Of  course  our  spirits  go  up  and  down. 
Of  course  the  work  that  we  have  to  do  one  day  seems 
easier  than  the  same  work  does  another.  All  these 
fluctuations  and  variations,  and  causes  of  heavy-footed- 
ness — and  sometimes  more  sinful  ones,  causes  of  slug- 
gishness— will  survive ;  but  in  spite  of  them  all,  and 
beneath  them  all,  it  is  possible  that  we  may  have  our- 
selves thus  equipped  for  the  road,  and  may  rejoice  in 
our  w^ork  '  as  a  strong  man  to  run  a  race,'  and  may 
cheerily  welcome  every  duty,  and  cast  ourselves  into 
all  our  tasks.  It  is  possible,  because  communion  with 
God  manifest  in  Christ  does,  as  we  have  been  seeing, 
actually  breathe  into  men  a  vigour,  and  consequently 
a  freshness  and  a  buoyancy  that  do  not  belong  to 
themselves,  and  do  not  come  from  nature  or  from 
surrounding  things.  Unless  that  is  true,  that  Chris- 
tianity gives  to  a  man  the  divine  gladness  which  makes 
him  ready  for  work,  I  do  not  know  what  is  the  good  of 
his  Christianity  to  him. 

But  not  only  is  that  so,  but  this  same  communion 
with  God,  which  is  the  opening  of  the  heart  for  the 

Q 


242  HABAKKUK  [cH.in. 

influx  of  the  divine  power,  brings  to  bear  upon  all 
our  work  new  motives  which  redeem  it  from  being 
oppressive,  tedious,  monotonous,  trivial,  too  great  for 
our  endurance,  or  too  little  for  our  effort.  All  work 
that  is  not  done  in  fellowship  with  Jesus  Christ  tends 
to  become  either  too  heavy  to  be  tackled  successfullj', 
or  too  trivial  to  demand  our  best  energies,  and  in 
either  case  will  be  done  perfunctorily,  and  as  the  days 
go  on,  mechanically  and  wearisomely,  as  a  grind  and  a 
plod.  *  Thou  makest  my  feet  like  hinds'  feet ' — if  I  get 
the  new  motive  of  love  to  God  in  Christ  well  into  my 
heart  so  that  it  comes  out  and  influences  all  my  actions, 
there  will  be  no  more  tasks  too  formidable  to  under- 
take, or  too  small  to  be  worth  an  effort.  There  will  be 
nothing  unwelcome.  The  rough  places  will  be  made 
plain,  and  the  crooked  things  straight,  and  our  feet 
will  be  shod  with  the  preparedness  of  the  gospel  of 
peace. 

If  we  live  in  daily  communion  with  God,  another 
thought,  too,  will  come  in,  which  will,  in  like  manner, 
make  us  ready  '  to  run  with '  cheerfulness  '  the  race 
that  is  set  before  us.'  We  shall  connect  everything 
that  befalls  us,  and  everything  that  we  have  to  do,  with 
the  final  issue,  and  life  will  become  solemn,  grave,  and 
blessed,  because  it  is  the  outer  court  and  vestibule  of 
the  eternal  life  with  God  in  Christ.  They  that  hold 
communion  with  Him,  and  only  they,  will,  as  another 
prophet  says,  '  run  and  not  be  weary,'  when  there  come 
the  moments  that  require  a  special  effort ;  and  *  wili 
walk  and  not  faint'  through  the  else  tediously  long 
hours  of  commonplace  duty  and  dusty  road. 

III.  The  last  of  the  thoughts  here  is— Communion 
with  God  brings  elevation. 

*  He  will  make   me  to  walk  upon  my  high  places. 


V.19]       THE  IDEAL  DEVOUT  LIFE         243 

One  sees  the  herd  on  the  skyline  of  the  mountain  ridge, 
and  at  home  up  there,  far  above  dangers  and  attack ; 
able  to  keep  their  footing  on  cliff  and  precipice,  and 
tossing  their  antlers  in  the  pure  air.  One  wave  of  the 
hand,  and  they  are  miles  away.  *  He  sets  me  upon  my 
high  places';  if  we  will  keep  ourselves  in  simple, 
loving  fellowship  with  God  in  Christ ;  and  day  by  day, 
even  when  '  the  fig-tree  does  not  blossom,  and  there  is 
no  fruit  in  the  vine,'  will  still '  rejoice  in  the  God  of  our 
salvation,'  He  will  lift  us  up,  and  Isaiah's  other  clause 
in  the  verse  which  I  have  quoted  will  be  fulfilled: 
'They  shall  mount  up  with  wings  as  eagles.'  Com- 
munion with  God  does  not  only  help  us  to  plod  and  to 
travel,  but  it  helps  us  to  soar.  If  we  keep  ourselves  in 
touch  with  Him,  we  shall  be  like  a  weight  that  is  hung 
on  to  a  balloon.  The  buoyancy  of  the  one  will  lift  the 
leadenness  of  the  other.  If  we  hold  fast  by  Christ's 
hand  that  will  lift  us  up  to  the  high  places,  the  heights 
of  God,  in  so  far  as  we  may  reach  them  in  this  world  ; 
and  we  shall  be  at  home  up  there.  They  will  be  '  my 
high  places,'  that  I  never  could  have  got  at  by  my  own 
scrambling,  but  to  which  Thou  hast  lifted  me  up,  and 
which,  by  Thy  grace,  have  become  my  natural  abode. 
I  am  at  home  there,  and  walk  at  liberty  in  the  loftiness, 
and  fear  no  fall  amongst  the  cliffs. 

Are  you  and  I  familiar  w^ith  these  upper  ranges  of 
thought  and  experience  and  life  ?  Do  we  feel  at  home 
there  more  than  down  in  the  bottoms,  amongst  the 
swamps,  and  the  miasma,  and  the  mists?  Where  is 
your  home,  brother?  The  Mass  begins  with  Sursum 
corda :  '  Up  with  your  hearts,'  and  that  is  the  word  for 
us.  But  the  way  to  get  up  is  to  keep  ourselves  in  touch 
with  Jesus  Christ,  and  then  He  will,  even  whilst  our 
feet  are  travelling  along  this  road  of  earth,  set  us  at 


2U  HABAKKUK  [oh.  iii. 

His  own  right  hand  in  the  heavenly  places,  and  make 
them  '  our  high  places.'  It  is  safe  up  there.  The  air  is 
pure ;  the  poison  mists  are  down  lower ;  the  hunters  do 
not  come  there ;  their  arrows  or  their  rifles  will  not 
carry  so  far.  It  is  only  when  the  herd  ventures  a  little 
down  the  hill  that  it  is  in  danger  from  shots. 

But  the  elevation  will  not  be  such  as  to  make  us 
despise  the  low  paths  on  which  duty — the  sufficient 
and  loftiest  thing  of  all — lies  for  us.  Our  souls  may 
be  like  stars,  and  dwell  apart,  and  yet  may  lay  the 
humblest  duties  upon  themselves,  and  whilst  we  live 
in  the  high  places,  we  *  may  travel  on  life's  common 
way  in  cheerful  godliness.'  Communion  with  Him 
will  make  us  light-footed,  and  lift  us  high,  and  yet  it 
will  keep  us  at  desk,  and  mill,  and  study,  and  kitchen, 
and  nursery,  and  shop,  and  we  shall  find  that  the  high 
places  are  reachable  in  every  life,  and  in  every  task. 
So  we  may  go  on  until  at  last  we  shall  hear  the  Voice 
that  says,  '  Come  up  higher,'  and  shall  be  lifted  to  the 
mountain  of  God,  where  the  living  waters  are,  and 
shall  fear  no  snarea  or  hunters  any  more  for  ever. 


ZEPHANIAH 
ZION'S  JOY  AND  GOD'S 

'Sing,  O  daughter  of  Zion;  shout,  O  Israel;  be  glad  and  rejoice  with  all  the 
heart,  O  daughter  of  Jerusalem.  ...  17.  He  will  rejoice  over  thee  with  joy ;  He  will 
rest  in  His  love.  He  will  joy  over  thee  with  singing.'— Zephaniah  iii.  14, 17. 

What  a  wonderful  rush  of  exuberant  gladness  there 
is  in  these  words !  The  swift,  short  clauses,  the  triple 
invocation  in  the  former  verse,  the  triple  promise  in 
the  latter,  the  heaped  together  synonyms,  all  help 
the  impression.  The  very  words  seem  to  dance  with 
joy.  But  more  remarkable  than  this  is  the  parallel- 
ism between  the  two  verses.  Zion  is  called  to  rejoice 
in  God  because  God  rejoices  in  her.  She  is  to  shout 
for  joy  and  sing  because  God's  joy  too  has  a  voice,  and 
breaks  out  into  singing.  For  every  throb  of  joy  in 
man's  heart,  there  is  a  wave  of  gladness  in  God's.  The 
notes  of  our  praise  are  at  once  the  echoes  and  the 
occasions  of  His.  We  are  to  be  glad  because  He  is 
glad :  He  is  glad  because  we  are  so.  We  sing  for  joy, 
and  He  joys  over  us  with  singing  because  we  do. 

I.  God's  joy  over  Zion. 

It  is  to  be  noticed  that  the  former  verse  of  our  text 
is  followed  by  the  assurance :  '  The  Lord  is  in  the  midst 
of  thee ' ;  and  that  the  latter  verse  is  preceded  by  the 
same  assurance.  So,  then,  intimate  fellowship  and 
communion  between  God  and  Israel  lies  at  the  root 
both  of  God's  joy  in  man  and  man's  joy  in  God. 

We  are  solemnly  warned  by  '  profound  thinkers '  of 


246  ZEPHANIAH  [ch.  m. 

letting  the  shadow  of  our  emotions  fall  upon  God.  No 
doubt  there  is  a  real  danger  there ;  but  there  is  a  worse 
danger,  that  of  conceiving  of  a  God  who  has  no  life 
and  heart ;  and  it  is  better  to  hold  fast  by  this — that 
in  Him  is  that  which  corresponds  to  what  in  us  is 
gladness.  We  are  often  told,  too,  that  the  Jehovah  of 
the  Old  Testament  is  a  stern  and  repellent  God,  and 
the  religion  of  the  Old  Testament  is  gloomy  and 
servile.  But  such  a  misconception  is  hard  to  maintain 
in  the  face  of  such  words  as  these.  Zephaniah,  of 
whom  we  know  little,  and  whose  words  are  mainly 
forecasts  of  judgments  and  woes  pronounced  against 
Zion  that  was  rebellious  and  polluted,  ends  his  prophecy 
with  these  companion  pictures,  like  a  gleam  of  sun- 
shine which  often  streams  out  at  the  close  of  a  dark 
winter's  day.  To  him  the  judgments  which  he  prophesied 
were  no  contradiction  of  the  love  and  gladness  of  God. 
The  thought  of  a  glad  God  might  be  a  very  awful 
thought;  such  an  insight  as  this  prophet  had  gives  a 
blessed  meaning  to  it.  We  may  think  of  the  joy  that 
belongs  to  the  divine  nature  as  coming  from  the  com- 
pleteness of  His  being,  which  is  raised  far  above  all  that 
makes  of  sorrow.  But  it  is  not  in  Himself  alone  that 
He  is  glad ;  but  it  is  because  He  loves.  The  exercise  of 
love  is  ever  blessedness.  His  joy  is  in  self-impartation ; 
His  delights  are  in  the  sons  of  men :  '  As  the  bride- 
groom rejoiceth  over  the  bride,  so  shall  thy  God  rejoice 
over  thee.'  His  gladness  is  in  His  children  when  they  let 
Him  love  them,  and  do  not  throw  back  His  love  on 
itself.  As  in  man's  physical  frame  it  is  pain  to  have 
secretions  dammed  up,  so  when  God's  love  is  forced 
back  upon  itself  and  prevented  from  flowing  out  in 
blessing,  some  shadow  of  suffering  cannot  but  pass 
across   that  calm  sky.     He  is  glad  when  His  face  is 


vs.U,17]     ZION'S  JOY  AND  GOD'S  247 

mirrored  in  ours,  and  the  rays  from  Him  are  reflected 
from  us. 

But  there  is  another  wonderfully  bold  and  beautiful 
thought  in  this  representation  of  the  gladness  of  God. 
Note  the  double  form  which  it  assumes :  '  He  will  rest' 
— literally,  be  silent — '  in  His  love ;  He  will  joy  over  thee 
with  singing.'  As  to  the  former,  loving  hearts  on 
earth  know  that  the  deepest  love  knows  no  utterance, 
and  can  find  none.  A  heart  full  of  love  rests  as  hav- 
ing attained  its  desire  and  accomplished  its  purpose. 
It  keeps  a  perpetual  Sabbath,  and  is  content  to  be 
silent. 

But  side  by  side  with  this  picture  of  the  repose  of 
God's  joy  is  set  with  great  poetic  insight  the  precisely 
opposite  image  of  a  love  which  delights  in  expression, 
and  rejoices  over  its  object  with  singing.  The  com- 
bination of  the  two  helps  to  express  the  depth  and 
intensity  of  the  one  love,  which  like  a  song-bird  rises 
with  quivering  delight  and  pours  out  as  it  rises  an 
ever  louder  and  more  joyous  note,  and  then  drops, 
composed  and  still,  to  its  nest  upon  the  dewy  ground. 

II.  Zion's  joy  in  God. 

To  the  Prophet,  the  fact  that  *  the  Lord  is  in  the 
midst  of  thee'  was  the  guarantee  for  the  confident 
assurance  'Thou  shalt  not  fear  any  more';  and  this 
assurance  was  to  be  the  occasion  of  exuberant  gladness, 
which  ripples  over  in  the  very  words  of  our  first  text. 
That  great  thought  of  '  God  dwelling  in  the  midst '  is 
rightly  a  pain  and  a  terror  to  rebellious  wills  and 
alienated  hearts.  It  needs  some  preparation  of  mind 
and  spirit  to  be  glad  because  God  is  near ;  and  they 
who  find  their  satisfaction  in  earthly  sources,  and 
those  who  seek  for  it  in  these,  see  no  word  of  good 
news,  but  rather  a  '  fearful  looking  for  of  judgment '  in 


248  ZEPHANIAH  [ch.  hi. 

the  thought  that  God  is  in  their  midst.  The  word  ren- 
dered '  rejoices '  in  the  first  verse  of  our  text  is  not  the 
same  as  that  so  translated  in  the  second.  The  latter 
means  literally,  to  move  in  a  circle ;  while  the  former 
literally  means,  to  leap  for  joy.  Thus  the  gladness  of  God 
is  thought  of  as  expressing  itself  in  dignified,  calm  move- 
ments, whilst  Zion's  joy  is  likened  in  its  expression  to 
the  more  violent  movements  of  the  dance.  True  human 
joy  is  like  God's,  in  that  He  delights  in  us  and  we  in 
Him,  and  in  that  both  He  and  we  delight  in  the 
exercise  of  love.  But  we  are  never  to  forget  that  the 
differences  are  real  as  the  resemblances,  and  that  it  is 
reserved  for  the  higher  form  of  our  experiences  in  a 
future  life  to  *  enter  into  the  joy  of  the  Lord.' 

It  becomes  us  to  see  to  it  that  our  religion  is  a 
religion  of  joy.  Our  text  is  an  authoritative  command 
as  well  as  a  joyful  exhortation,  and  we  do  not  fairly 
represent  the  facts  of  Christian  faith  if  we  do  not 
'  rejoice  in  the  Lord  always.'  In  all  the  sadness  and 
troubles  which  necessarily  accompany  us,  as  they  do 
all  men,  we  ought  by  the  effort  of  faith  to  set  the  Lord 
always  before  us  that  we  be  not  moved.  The  secret  of 
stable  and  perpetual  joy  still  lies  where  Zephaniah 
found  it — in  the  assurance  that  the  Lord  is  with  us, 
and  in  the  vision  of  His  love  resting  upon  us,  and  rejoic- 
ing over  us  with  singing.  If  thus  our  love  clasps  His, 
and  His  joy  finds  its  way  into  our  hearts,  it  will  remain 
with  us  that  our  *  joy  may  be  f  uU ';  and  being  guarded  by 
Him  whilst  still  there  is  fear  of  stumbling.  He  will  set 
us  at  last  '  before  the  presence  of  His  glory  without 
blemish  in  exceeding  joy.* 


HAGGAI 

VAIN  TOIL 

•  Ye  have  sown  much,  and  bring  in  little ;  ye  eat,  but  ye  have  not  enough ;  ye  drink, 
but  ye  are  not  filled  with  drink ;  ye  clothe  you,  but  there  is  none  warm  ;  and  he  that 
earneth  wages  eameth  wages  to  put  it  into  a  bag  with  holes.'— Haqgai  i.  6 

A  LARGE  emigration  had  taken  place  from  the  land  of 
captivity  to  Jerusalem.  The  great  purpose  which  the 
returning  exiles  had  in  view  was  the  rebuilding  of  the 
Temple,  as  the  centre-point  of  the  restored  nation.  With 
true  heroism,  and  much  noble  and  unselfish  enthusiasm, 
they  began  the  work,  postponing  to  it  all  considerations 
of  personal  convenience.  But  the  usual  fate  of  all  great 
national  enthusiasms  attended  this.  Political  difficulties, 
hard  practical  realities,  came  in  the  way,  and  the  task 
was  suspended  for  a  time.  A  handful  remained  true  to 
the  original  ideas ;  the  rest  fell  away.  Personal  comfort, 
love  of  ease,  the  claims  of  domestic  life,  the  greed  of 
gain,  all  the  ignoble  motives  which,  like  gravitation 
and  friction,  check  such  movements  after  the  first 
impulse  is  exhausted,  came  into  play.  Like  every  great 
cause,  this  one  was  launched  amidst  high  hopes  and 
honest  zeal:  but  by  degrees  the  hopes  faded  and 
became  nothing  better  than  '  godly  imaginations.'  The 
exiles  took  to  building  their  own  ceiled  houses,  and  let 
the  House  of  God  lie  waste.  They  began  to  think  more 
of  settling  on  the  land  than  of  building  the  Temple. 
No  doubt  they  said  all  the  things  with  which  men  are 
wont  to  hide  their  selfishness  under  the  mask  of  duty : 

3i9 


250  HAGGAI  [ch.  i 

— *  Men  must  live ;  we  must  take  care  of  ourselves ;  it 
is  mad  enthusiasm  to  build  a  temple  when  we  have  not 
homes;  we  mean  to  build  it  some  time,  but  we  are 
practical  men  and  must  provide  for  our  wants  first.' 

This  wisdom  of  theirs  turned  out  folly,  as  it  generally 
does.  There  came,  as  we  learn  from  this  prophet,  a 
season  of  distress,  in  which  the  harvest,  for  which  they 
had  sacrificed  their  duties  and  their  calling,  failed :  and 
in  spite  of  their  prudent  diligence,  or  rather,  just 
because  of  their  misplaced  and  selfish  attention  to  their 
worldly  wellbeing,  they  were  poor  and  hungry.  *  The 
heaven  over  them  was  stayed  from  dew,  and  the  earth 
from  her  fruit.'  Haggai  was  sent  by  God  to  interpret 
the  calamity,  and  to  urge  to  the  fulfilment  of  their 
earlier  purposes. 

His  words  apply  to  a  supernatural  condition  of 
things  with  which  he  is  dealing,  but  they  contain 
truths  illustrated  by  it  and  true  for  ever.  For  us 
all,  as  truly  as  for  those  Jews,  the  first  thing,  the 
primary,  all-embracing  duty,  is  to  serve  God,  to  obey, 
love,  and  live  with  Him.  The  same  selfish  and  worldly 
excuses  have  force  with  us :  '  We  have  business  to  look 
after ;  men  must  live ;  we  have  no  time  to  think  about 
religion;  I  have  built  a  new  mill  that  occupies  my 
thoughts ;  I  have  found  a  new  plaything,  and  I  must 
try  it ;  I  have  married  a  wife,  and  therefore  I  cannot 
come.'  So  God  and  His  claims,  Christ  and  His  love,  arc 
hustled  into  a  corner  to  be  attended  to  when  opportunity 
serves,  but  to  be  neglected  in  the  meantime.  And  the 
same  result  follows,  not  by  miracle,  but  by  natural 
necessity.  Haggai  puts  these  results  in  our  text  with 
bitter,  indignant  amplification.  His  words  are  all  the 
working  out  of  one  idea — the  unprofitableness,  on  the 
whole  and  in  the  long-run,  of  a  godless  life.     He  illus- 


V.6]  VAIN  TOIL  251 

trates  this  in  the  clauses  of  our  text  in  various  forms, 
and  my  purpose  now  is  simply  to  aipply  each  of  these  to 
the  realities  of  a  godless  life. 

I.  It  is  a  life  of  fruitless  toil. 

The  Prophet  pictures  the  sowing,  the  abundant  seed 
thrown  broadcast,  the  long  waiting,  and  then,  finally, 
a  wretched  harvest — a  few  prematurely  yellow  ears 
and  short  stalks.  I  remember  a  friend  telling  me  that 
when  he  was  a  boy  he  went  out  reaping  with  his  father 
in  one  of  our  years  of  great  drought ;  and  after  a  day's 
work  threshed  out  all  that  he  had  cut,  and  carried  it 
home  with  him  in  his  handkerchief.  That  is  what 
Haggai  saw  realised  in  fact,  because  the  sowing  had 
been  without  God.  It  is  what  we  may  see  in  others  and 
feel  in  ourselves.  It  is  the  very  law  and  curse  of  god- 
less toil  with  its  unproductive  harvest.  The  builders 
set  out  to  build  a  tower  whose  top  shall  reach  to  heaven, 
and  they  never  get  higher  than  a  story  or  two.  There 
is  nothing  more  tragic  than  the  contrast  between  what 
a  man  actually  accomplishes  in  his  life  and  what  he 
planned  when  he  began  it.  Many  and  many  of  our 
lives  are  like  the  half-built  houses  in  Pompeii,  where  the 
stones  are  lying  that  had  been  all  squared  and  polished, 
and  have  never  been  lifted  to  their  place  in  the  un- 
finished walls.  Much  of  the  seed  never  comes  up  at 
all ;  and  what  we  gather  is  always  less  than  what  we 
expected.  The  prize  gleams  before  us ;  when  we  get  it, 
is  it  as  good  as  it  looked  when  it  hung  tempting  at  the 
unreached  goal?  A  fox-brush  is  scarcely  sufficient 
payment  for  riding  over  half  a  county.  Ah !  but  you 
say,  there  is  the  enthusiasm  and  stir  of  the  pursuit. 
Well,  yes  ;  it  is  something  if  it  is  training  you  for  some- 
thing, and  if  you  can  say  that  faculties  worth  the  culti- 
vating are  developed  in  that  way :  and  whether  that  is 


252  HAGGAI  [ch.  i. 

80  depends  on  what  you  think  a  man  is  made  for,  and 
on  whether  these  are  faculties  which  will  last  and  find 
their  scope  as  long  as  you  last.  Consider  what  you  are, 
what  you  seek ;  and  then  say  whether  the  most  fruitful 
harvest  from  which  God  and  His  love  are  left  out  is 
not  little. 

This  fruitlessness  of  toil  is  inevitable  unless  it  springs 
from  a  motive  which  in  itself  is  sufficient,  pursues  a 
purpose  which  will  surely  be  accomplished,  and  is  done 
in  hope  of  the  world  where  '  our  works  do  follow  us.' 
If  we  are  allied  to  Christ,  then  whether  our  work  be 
great  or  small,  apparently  successful  or  frustrated,  it 
will  be  all  right.  Though  we  do  not  see  our  fruit,  we 
know  that  He  will  bless  the  springing  thereof,  and  that 
no  least  deed  done  for  Him  but  shall  in  the  harvest-day 
be  found  waving  a  nodding  head  of  multiplied  results. 
*  God  giveth  it  a  body  as  it  hath  pleased  Him ' ;  and  '  he 
that  goeth  forth  weeping  shall  doubtless  return,  bring- 
ing his  sheaves  with  him.'  •  Your  labour  is  not  in  vain 
in  the  Lord.' 

11.  A  godless  life  is  one  of  unsatisfied  hunger  and 
thirst. 

The  poor  results  of  the  exiles'  toil  did  not  avail  to 
stay  gnawing  hunger  nor  slake  burning  thirst,  and  the 
same  result  applies  only  too  sadly  to  lives  lived  apart 
from  God.  There  are  a  multitude  of  desires  proper  to 
the  human  soul  besides  those  which  belong  to  the 
bodily  frame,  and  these  have  their  proper  objects.  Is 
it  true  that  the  objects  are  sufficient  to  satisfy  the 
desires  ?  Does  any  one  of  the  things  for  which  we  toil 
feed  us  full  when  we  have  it  ?  Do  we  not  always  want 
just  a  little  more  ?  And  is  not  that  want  accompanied 
with  a  real  and  sharp  sense  of  hunger  ?  Is  it  not  true 
the  appetite  grows  with  what  it  feeds  on?     And  even 


V.  6]  VAIN  TOIL  253 

if  a  man  schools  himself  to  something  like  content,  it 
comes  not  because  the  desire  is  satisfied,  but  because  it 
is  somehow  bridled.  Cerberus  often  breaks  his  chain, 
in  spite  of  honied  cakes  that  have  been  tossed  into  the 
wide  mouths  of  his  tripled  heads.  What  do  wealth 
and  ambition  do  for  their  votaries  ?  And  even  he  who 
thirsts  for  nobler  occupations  and  lives  for  higher 
aims  is  often  obliged  to  admit,  in  weariness,  that  *  this 
also  is  vanity.' 

But  even  when  the  desire  is  satisfied,  the  man  desir- 
ing is  not.  To  feed  their  bodies  men  starve  their  souls. 
How  many  longings  are  crushed  or  neglected  by  him 
who  pushes  eagerly  after  any  one  longing !  We  have 
either  to  race  from  one  course  to  another,  splitting  life 
into  intolerable  distractions,  or  we  have  to  circumscribe 
and  limit  ourselves  in  order  to  devote  all  our  power  to 
securing  one ;  and  if  we  secure  it,  then  a  hundred  others 
will  bark  like  a  kennel  of  hounds. 

And  if  you  say,  *!  know  nothing  about  all  this;  I 
have  my  aims,  and  on  the  whole  I  secure  a  tolerable 
satisfaction  for  them,'  do  you  not  know  a  nameless 
unrest  ?  If  you  do  not,  then  you  are  so  much  the  poorer 
and  the  lower,  and  you  have  murdered  part  of  yourself. 
Some  one  single  tyrannous  desire  sits  solitary  in  your 
heart.  He  has  slain  all  his  brethren  that  he  may  rule, 
as  sultans  used  to  do  in  Constantinople.  One  big  fish  in 
the  aquarium  has  eaten  up  all  the  others. 

God  only  satisfies  the  soul.  It  is  only  the  'bread 
which  came  down  from  Heaven,'  of  which  if  we  eat  our 
souls  shall  live,  and  be  filled  as  with  marrow  and  fat- 
ness. That  One  is  all-sufficient  in  His  Oneness.  Posses- 
sing Him,  we  know  no  satiety ;  possessing  Him,  we  do 
not  need  to  maim  any  part  of  our  nature ;  possessing 
Him,  we  shall  not  covet  divers  multifarious  objects.  The 


254  HAGGAI  [ch.  i. 

loftiest  powers  of  the  soul  find  in  Him  their  adequate, 
inexhaustible,  eternal  object.  The  lowest  desires  may, 
like  the  beasts  of  the  forest,  seek  their  meat  from  God. 
If  we  take  Him  for  our  own  and  live  on  Him  by  faith, 
our  blessed  experience  will  be,  '  I  am  full :  I  have  all 
and  abound.' 

III.  The  godless  life  is  one  of  futile  defences. 

*  Ye  clothe  you,  but  there  is  none  warm.'  The  clothing 
was  to  guard  against  the  nipping  air  that  blew  shrewdly 
on  their  hills,  and  it  failed  to  keep  them  from  the 
weather.  We  maybe  indulging  in  fancy  in  this  applica- 
tion of  our  text,  but  still  raiment  is  as  needful  as  food, 
and  its  failure  to  answer  its  purpose  points  to  a  real 
sorrow  and  insufficiency  of  a  life  lived  without  God.  In 
it  there  is  no  real  defence  against  the  manifold  evils 
which  storm  upon  all  of  us.  When  the  bitter,  biting 
weather  comes,  what  have  you  to  shelter  you  from  the 
cold  blast?  Some  rags  of  stoical  resignation  or  pro- 
verbial commonplaces?  'What  is  done  cannot  be 
helped';  'What  cannot  be  cured  must  be  endured';  'It 
is  a  long  lane  that  has  no  turning,'  and  the  like.  But 
what  are  these  ?  You  may  have  other  occupations  to 
interest  you,  but  these  will  not  heal,  though  they  may 
divert  your  attention  from,  your  gaping  wounds.  You 
have  friends,  and  the  like,  but  though  you  have  all  these 
and  much  beside,  these  will  not  avail.  'The  covering 
is  shorter  than  that  a  man  can  wrap  himself  in  it.' 
Naked  and  shivering,  exposed  to  the  pelting  and  the 
pitiless  storm,  with  rags  soaked  through,  and  chilled  to 
the  bone,  what  is  there  but  death  before  the  man  in 
the  wild  weather  on  some  trackless  moor  ?  And  what 
is  there  for  us  if  we  have  to  bear  the  storms  and  cold  of 
life  without  God  ?  No  doubt  most  of  us  struggle  through 
somehow.    Time  heals  much ;  work  does  a  great  deal : 


V.6]  VAIN  TOIL  255 

to  live  is  so  much,  that  no  living  being  can  be  wholly 
miserable.  Other  cares  and  other  occupations  blossom 
and  grow,  and  the  brown  mounds  get  covered  with 
sweet  springing  grass.  But  how  many  lie  down  and 
die  ?  How  many  for  the  rest  of  their  lives  go  crushed 
and  broken-spirited?  How  many  carry  about  with 
them,  deep  in  their  hearts,  a  sleepless  sorrow  ?  How 
many  have  to  bear  passionate  paroxysms  of  agony 
and  bursts  of  angry  grief,  all  of  which  might  have  been 
softened  and  soothed  and  made  to  gleam  with  the 
mellow  light  of  hope  as  from  a  hidden  sun,  if  only, 
instead  of  defiantly  and  weakly  fronting  the  world 
alone,  they  had  found  in  the  man  Christ  the  refuge 
from  the  storm  and  the  covert  from  the  tempest.  How 
can  a  man  face  all  the  awful  possibilities  and  the  solemn 
certainties  of  life  without  God  and  not  go  mad  ?  It  is 
impossible  to  work  without  Him;  it  is  impossible  to 
rejoice  without  Him  ;  but  more  impossible  still,  if  that 
could  be,  is  it  to  endure  without  Him.  It  is  in  union 
with  Jesus  Christ,  and  with  Him  alone,  that  we  shall 
receive  'the  pure  linen,  clean  and  white,'  which  is  a 
surer  defence  than  the  warrior's  mail,  and  'being 
clothed  we  shall  not  be  found  naked.' 

TV.  A  godless  life  is  one  of  fleeting  riches. 

In  Haggai's  strong  metaphor,  the  poor  day-labourer 
earns  his  small  wage  and  puts  it  into  a  ragged  bag,  or 
as  we  should  say,  a  pocket  with  a  hole  in  it ;  and  when 
he  comes  to  look  for  it,  it  is  gone,  and  all  his  toil  is  for 
nothing.  What  a  picture  this  is  of  the  very  experi- 
ence that  befalls  all  men  who  work  for  less  wages  than 
God's  '  Well  done.'  Take  an  instance  or  two :  here  is  a 
man  who  works  hard  for  a  long  time,  and  puts  his 
money  into  some  bank,  and  one  morning  he  gets  a 
letter  to  tell  him  the  bank's  doors  are  closed,  and  his 


256  HAGGAI  [ch.  i. 

savings  gone — a  bag  with  holes.  Here  is  a  man  who 
climbs  by  slow  degrees  to  the  head  of  his  profession  and 
lives  in  popular  admiration,  and  some  day  he  sees  a 
younger  competitor  shooting  ahead  of  him,  and  all  is 
lost — a  bag  with  holes.  Here  is  a  man  who  has,  by 
some  great  discovery,  established  his  fame  or  his 
fortune,  and  a  new  man,  standing  on  his  shoulders, 
makes  a  greater,  and  his  fame  dwarfs  and  his  trade 
runs  into  other  channels — a  bag  with  holes.  Here  is  a 
man  who  has  conquered  a  world,  and  dies  on  the  rock 
of  St.  Helena,  ^th  his  pompous  titles  stripped  off  him, 
and  instead  of  kingdoms  a  rood  or  two  of  garden,  and 
instead  of  his  legions,  half  a  dozen  soldiers,  a  doctor, 
and  a  jailer — a  bag  with  holes.  Here  is  a  man  who, 
having  amassed  his  riches  and  kept  them  without  loss 
all  his  life,  is  dying.  They  cannot  go  with  him.  That 
would  not  matter ;  but  unfortunately  he  has  to  live 
yonder,  and  he  will  have  '  nothing  of  all  his  labour  that 
he  can  carry  away  in  his  hands ' — a  bag  with  holes. 

Such  loss  and  final  separation  befall  us  all ;  but  he 
who  loves  God  loses  none  of  his  real  treasure  when  he 
parts  from  earthly  treasures.  Fortune  may  turn  her 
wheel  as  she  pleases,  his  wealth  cannot  be  taken  from 
him.  His  riches  are  laid  up  in  a  sure  storehouse, 
'  where  neither  moth  nor  rust  doth  corrupt.'  We  each 
live  for  ever.  Should  we  not  have  for  our  object  in  life 
that  which  is  eternal  as  ourselves?  Why  should  we 
fix  our  hopes  on  that  which  is  not  abiding — on  things 
that  can  perish,  on  things  that  we  must  lose  ?  Let  us 
not  run  this  awful  risk.  Do  not  impoverish  or  darken 
life  here  ;  do  not  condemn  yourselves  to  unfruitful  toil, 
to  unsatisfied  desires,  to  unguarded  calamities,  to  un- 
stable possessions;  but  come,  as  sinful  men  ought  to 
come,  to  Jesus  Christ  for  pardon  and  for  life.    Then,  in 


V.6]        BRAVE  ENCOURAGEMENTS        257 

due  season,  you  will  reap  if  you  faint  not;  and  the 
harvest  will  not  be  little,  but '  some  sixty-fold  and  some 
an  hundred-fold ';  then  you  will  'hunger  no  more,  neither 
thirst  any  more,'  but  '  He  that  hath  mercy  on  you  will 
lead  you  to  living  fountains  of  water ' ;  then  you  will 
not  have  to  draw  your  poor  rags  round  you  for  warmth, 
but  shall  be  clothed  with  the  robe  of  righteousness 
and  the  garment  of  praise ;  then  you  will  never  need  to 
fear  the  loss  of  your  riches,  but  bear  with  you  whilst 
you  live  your  treasures  beyond  the  reach  of  change, 
and  will  find  them  multiplied  a  thousand-fold  when 
you  die  and  go  to  God,  your  portion  and  your  joy  for 
ever. 


BRAVE  ENCOURAGEMENTS 

'In  the  seventh  month,  in  the  one  and  twentieth  day  of  the  month,  came  the 
word  of  the  Lord  by  the  prophet  Haggai,  saying,  2.  Speak  now  to  Zerubbabel  the 
son  of  Shealtiel,  governor  of  Judah,  and  to  Joshua  the  son  of  Josedech,  the  high 
priest,  and  to  the  residue  of  the  people,  saying,  3.  Who  is  left  among  you  that  saw 
this  house  in  her  first  glory?  and  how  do  ye  see  it  now?  is  it  not  in  your  eyes  in 
comparison  of  it  as  nothing?  i.  Yet  now  he  strong,  O  Zerubbabel,  saith  the  Lord  ; 
and  be  strong,  O  Joshua,  son  of  Josedech,  the  high  priest;  and  be  strong,  all  ye 
people  of  the  land,  saith  the  Lord,  and  work :  for  I  am  with  you,  saith  the  Lord  of 
Hosts :  5.  According  to  the  word  that  I  covenanted  with  you  when  ye  came  out  of 
Egypt,  so  My  Spirit  remaineth  among  you :  fear  ye  not.  6.  For  thus  saith  the 
Lord  of  Hosts ;  Yet  once,  it  is  a  little  while,  and  I  will  shake  the  heavens,  and  the 
earth,  and  the  sea,  and  the  dry  land ;  7.  And  I  will  shake  all  nations,  and  the 
desire  of  all  nations  shall  come :  and  I  will  fill  this  house  with  glory,  saith  the 
Lord  of  Hosts.  8.  The  silver  is  Mine,  and  the  gold  is  Mine,  saith  the  Lord  of  Hosts. 
9.  The  glory  of  this  latter  house  shall  be  greater  than  of  the  former,  saith  the  Lord 
of  hosts :  and  in  this  place  will  I  give  peace,  saith  the  Lord  of  Hosts.'— Haggai 
ii.  1-9. 

The  second  year  of  Darius,  in  which  Haggai  prophesied, 
was  520  B.C.  Political  intrigues  had  stopped  the  rebuild- 
ing of  the  Temple,  and  the  enthusiasm  of  the  first  return 
had  died  away  in  the  face  of  prolonged  difficulties.  The 
two  brave  leaders,  Zerubbabel  and  Joshua,  still  sur- 
vived, and  kept  alive  their  own  zeal ;  but  the  mass  of 

B 


258  HAGGAI  [ch.  n. 

the  people  were  more  concerned  about  their  comforts 
than  about  the  restoration  of  the  house  of  Jehovah. 
They  had  built  for  themselves  '  ceiled  houses,'  and 
were  engrossed  with  their  farms. 

The  Book  of  Ezra  dwells  on  the  external  hindrances 
to  the  rebuilding.  Haggai  goes  straight  at  the  selfish- 
ness and  worldliness  of  the  people  as  the  great  hindrance. 
We  know  nothing  about  him  beyond  the  fact  that  he 
was  a  prophet  working  in  conjunction  with  Zechariah. 
He  has  been  thought  to  have  been  one  of  the  original 
company  w^ho  came  back  with  Zerubbabel,  and  it  has 
been  suggested,  though  without  any  certainty,  that  he 
may  have  been  one  of  the  old  men  who  remembered 
the  former  house.  But  these  conjectures  are  profitless, 
and  all  that  we  know  is  that  God  sent  him  to  rouse  the 
slackened  earnestness  of  the  people,  and  that  his  words 
exercised  a  powerful  influence  in  setting  forward  the 
work  of  .rebuilding.  This  passage  is  the  second  of  his 
four  short  prophecies.  We  may  call  it  a  vision  of  the 
glory  of  the  future  house  of  Jehovah. 

The  prophecy  begins  with  fully  admitting  the  depress- 
ing facts  which  were  chilling  the  popular  enthusiasm. 
Compared  with  the  former  Temple,  this  which  they  had 
begun  to  build  could  not  but  be  '  as  nothing.'  So  the 
murmurers  said,  and  Haggai  allows  that  they  are  quite 
right.  Note  the  turn  of  his  words :  '  Who  is  left  .  .  . 
that  saw  this  house  in  its  former  glory?'  There  had 
been  many  eighteen  years  ago ;  but  the  old  eyes  that 
had  filled  with  tears  then  had  been  mostly  closed  by 
death  in  the  interval,  and  now  but  few  survived.  Per- 
haps if  the  eyes  had  not  been  so  dim  with  age,  the 
rising  house  would  not  have  looked  so  contemptible. 
The  pessimism  of  the  aged  is  not  always  clear-sighted, 
nor  their  comparisons  of  what  was,  and  what  is  begin- 


vs.  1-9]    BRAVE  ENCOURAGEMENTS        259 

ning  to  be,  just.  But  it  is  always  wise  to  be  frank  in 
admitting  the  full  strength  of  the  opinions  that  we 
oppose ;  and  encouragements  to  work  will  never  tell 
if  they  blink  difficulties  or  seek  to  deny  plain  facts. 
Haggai  was  wise  when  he  began  with  echoing  the  old 
men's  disparagements,  and  in  full  view  of  thepi,  pealed 
out  his  brave  incitements  to  the  work. 

The  repetition  of  the  one  exhortation,  '  Be  strong, 
be  strong,  be  strong,'  is  very  impressive.  The  very 
monotony  has  power.  In  the  face  of  the  difficulties 
which  beset  every  good  work  the  cardinal  virtue  is 
strength.  '  To  be  weak  is  to  be  miserable,'  and  is  the 
parent  of  failures.  One  hears  in  the  exhortation  an 
echo  of  that  to  Joshua,  to  whom  and  to  his  people  the 
command  '  Be  strong  and  of  good  courage '  was  given 
with  like  repetition  (Joshua  i.). 

But  there  is  nothing  more  futile  than  telling  feeble 
men  to  be  strong,  and  trembling  ones  to  be  very 
courageous.  Unless  the  exhorter  can  give  some  means 
of  strength  and  some  reason  for  courage,  his  word  is 
idle  wind.  So  Haggai  bases  his  exhortation  upon  its 
sufficient  ground,  '  For  I  am  with  you,  saith  Jehovah  of 
hosts.'  Strength  is  a  duty,  but  only  if  we  have  a  source 
of  strength  available.  The  one  basis  of  it  is  the 
presence  of  God.  His  name  reveals  the  immensity  of 
His  power,  who  commands  all  the  armies  of  heaven, 
angels,  or  stars,  and  to  whom  the  forces  of  the  universe 
are  as  the  ordered  ranks  of  His  disciplined  army ;  and 
who  is,  moreover,  the  Captain  of  earthly  hosts,  ever 
giving  victory  to  those  who  are  His  '  willing  soldiers  in 
the  day  of  His  power.'  It  is  not  vain  to  bid  a  man  be 
strong,  if  you  can  assure  him  that  God  is  with  him. 
Unless  you  can,  you  may  save  your  breath. 

Here  is  the  temper  for  all  Christian  workers.    Let 


260  HAGGAI  [ch.  ii. 

them  realise  the  duty  of  strength ;  let  them  have 
recourse  to  the  Fountain  of  strength ;  let  them  mark 
the  purpose  of  strength,  which  is  'work,"*  as  Haggai 
puts  it  so  emphatically.  We  have  nothing  to  do  with 
the  magnitude  of  what  we  may  be  able  to  build.  It 
may  be  very  poor  beside  the  great  houses  that  greater 
ages  or  men  have  been  able  to  rear.  But  whether  it  be 
a  temple  brave  with  gold  and  cedar,  or  a  log-hut,  it  is 
our  business  to  put  all  our  strength  into  the  task,  and 
to  draw  that  strength  from  the  assurance  that  God  is 
with  us. 

The  difficulties  connected  with  the  translation  of 
verse  5  need  not  concern  us  here.  For  my  pur- 
pose, the  general  sense  resulting  from  any  translation 
is  clear  enough.  The  covenant  made  of  old,  when 
Israel  came  from  an  earlier  captivity,  is  fresh  as  ever, 
and  God's  Spirit  is  with  the  people ;  therefore  they 
need  not  fear.  'Fear  ye  not'  is  another  of  the  well- 
meant  exhortations  which  often  produce  the  opposite 
effect  from  the  intended  one.  One  can  fancy  some  of 
the  people  saying,  '  It  is  all  very  well  to  talk  about  not 
being  afraid ;  but  look  at  our  feebleness,  our  defence- 
lessness,  our  enemies ;  we  cannot  but  fear,  if  we  open 
our  eyes.'  Quite  true ;  and  there  is  only  one  antidote 
to  fear,  and  that  is  the  assurance  that  God's  covenant 
binds  Him  to  take  care  of  me.  Unless  one  believes 
that,  he  must  be  strangely  blind  to  the  facts  of  life  if 
he  has  not  a  cold  dread  coiled  round  his  heart  and  ever 
ready  to  sting. 

The  Prophet  rises  into  grand  predictions  of  the  glory 
of  the  poor  house  which  the  weak  hands  were  raising. 
Verses  6-9  set  things  invisible  over  against  the  visible. 
In  general  terms  the  Prophet  announces  a  speedy  con- 
vulsion, partly  symbolical  and  partly  real,  in  which  'all 


vs.  1-9]    BRAVE  ENCOURAGEMENTS        261 

nations '  shall  be  revolutionised,  and  as  a  consequence, 
shall  become  Jehovah's  worshippers,  bringing  their 
treasures  to  the  Temple,  and  so  filling  the  house  with 
glory.  This  shall  be  because  Jehovah  is  the  true 
Possessor  of  all  their  wealth.  But  the  scope  of  verse  9 
seems  to  transcend  these  promises,  and  to  point  to  an 
undescribed  '  glory,'  still  greater  than  that  of  the  uni- 
versal flocking  of  the  nations  with  their  gifts,  and  to 
reach  a  climax  in  the  wide  promise  of  peace  given  in 
the  Temple,  and  thence,  as  is  implied,  flowing  out '  like 
a  river '  through  a  tranquillised  world. 

*  Yet  once,  it  is  a  little  while.'  How  long  did  the  little 
while  last  ?  There  were,  possibly,  some  feeble  incipient 
fulfilments  of  the  prophecy  in  the  immediate  future ; 
for,  after  the  exile,  there  were  convulsions  in  the 
political  world  which  resulted  in  security  to  the  Jews, 
and  the  religion  of  Israel  began  to  draw  some  scattered 
proselytes.  But  the  prophecy  is  not  completely  ful- 
filled even  now,  and  it  covers  the  entire  development 
of  the  '  kingdom  that  cannot  be  moved '  until  the  end 
of  time.  The  writer  of  the  Epistle  to  the  Hebrews 
thus  understands  the  prophecy  (Hebrews  xii.  26,  27), 
and  there  are  echoes  of  it  in  Revelation  xxi.,  which 
describes  the  final  form  of  the  Holy  City,  the  New 
Jerusalem.  So  the  chronology  of  prophecy  is  not 
altogether  that  of  history ;  and  while  the  events  stand 
clear,  their  perspective  is  foreshortened.  All  the  ages 
are  but '  a  little  while  '  in  the  calendar  of  heaven.  In 
regard  to  the  whole  of  the  prophetic  utterances,  we 
have  often  to  say  with  the  disciples, '  What  is  this  that 
he  saith,  a  little  while?'  Eighteen  centuries  have 
rolled  away  since  the  seer  heard,  '  Behold,  I  come 
quickly,'  and  the  vision  still  tarries. 

The  old  interpretation  of  *  the  desire  of  all  nations  * 


262  HAGGAI  [ch.  ii. 

as  meaning  Jesus  Christ  gave  a  literal  fulfilment  of 
the  prophecy  by  His  presence  in  the  Temple ;  but  that 
meaning  of  the  phrase  is  untenable,  both  because  the 
verb  is  in  the  plural,  which  would  be  impossible  if  a 
person  were  meant,  and  because  the  only  interpreta- 
tion which  gives  relevancy  to  verse  8  is  that  the 
expression  means  the  silver  and  gold,  there  declared 
to  be  Jehovah's.  That  venerable  explanation,  then, 
cannot  stand.  There  were  offerings  from  heathen 
kings,  such  as  those  from  Darius  recorded  in  Ezra  vi. 
6-10,  and  the  gifts  of  Artaxerxes  (Ezra  vii.  15),  which 
may  be  regarded  as  incipient  accomplishments ;  but 
such  facts  as  these  cannot  exhaust  the  prophecy. 

It  must  be  admitted  that  nothing  happened  during 
the  history  of  that  Temple  to  answer  to  the  full  mean- 
ing of  this  prophecy.  But  was  it  therefore  a  delusion 
that  God  spoke  by  Haggai?  We  must  distinguish 
between  form  and  substance.  The  Temple  was  the 
centre  point  of  the  kingdom  of  God  on  earth,  the  place 
of  meeting  between  God  and  men,  the  place  of  sacrifice. 
The  fulfilment  of  the  prophecy  is  not  to  be  found  in  any 
house  made  with  hands,  but  in  the  true  Temple  which 
Jesus  Christ  has  builded.  He  in  His  own  humanity 
was  all  that  the  Temple  shadowed  and  foretold.  It  is  in 
Him,  and  in  the  spiritual  Temple  which  He  has  reared, 
that  Haggai's  vision  will  find  its  full  realisation,  which  is 
yet  future.  The  powers  that  issue  from  Him  shattered 
the  Roman  empire,  have  ever  since  been  casting  earth's 
kingdoms  into  new  moulds,  and  have  still  destructive 
work  to  do.  The  *  once  more '  began  when  Jesus  came, 
but  the  final '  shaking '  lies  in  front  still.  Erery  smaller 
revolution  in  thought  or  sweeping  away  of  institutions 
is  a  prelude  to  that  great  '  shaking '  when  everything 
will  go  except  the  kingdom  that  cannot  be  moved.    Its 


vs.  1-9]    BRAVE  ENCOURAGEMENTS        263 

result  shall  be  that  the  treasures  of  the  nations  shall 
be  poured  at  His  feet  who  is  '  worthy  to  receive  riches,' 
even  as  other  prophecies  have  foretold  that '  men  shall 
bring  unto  Thee  the  wealth  of  the  nations '  (Isaiah  Ix. 
11 ;  Revelation  xxi.  24,  26). 

In  that  true  Temple  the  glory  of  the  Shechinah,  which 
was  wanting  in  the  second,  for  ever  abides,  '  the  glory 
as  of  the  only-begotten  of  the  Father ' ;  and  in  it  dwells 
for  ever  the  dove  of  peace,  ready  to  glide  into  every 
heart  that  enters  to  worship  at  the  shrine.  Jesus  Christ 
is  not  the  '  desire  of  all  nations '  which  shall  come  to 
the  Temple,  but  is  the  Temple  to  which  the  wealth  of  all 
nations  shall  be  brought,  in  whom  the  true  glory  of  a 
mianifested  God  abides,  and  from  whom  the  peace  of 
God  which  passeth  all  understanding,  and  is  His  own 
peace  too,  shall  enter  reconciled  souls,  and  calm  turbu- 
lent passions,  and  reconcile  contending  peoples,  and 
diffuse  its  calm  through  all  the  nations  of  the  saved 
who  there  *  walk  in  the  light  of  the  Lord.' 


ZECHARIAH 

DYING  MEN  AND  THE  UNDYING  WORD 

'  Your  fathers,  where  are  they  I  and  the  prophets,  do  they  live  for  ever?   6.  Bnt 

My  words  and  My  statutes,  which  I  commanded  My  servants  the  prophets,  did 
they  nob  take  hold  of  your  fathers?  '—Zechariah  i.  5, 6. 

Zechariah  was  the  Prophet  of  the  Restoration.  Some 
sixteen  years  before  this  date  a  feeble  band  of  exiles 
had  returned  from  Babylon,  with  high  hopes  of  re- 
building the  ruined  Temple.  But  their  designs  had 
been  thwarted,  and  for  long  years  the  foundations 
stood  unbuilded  upon.  The  delay  had  shattered  their 
hopes  and  flattened  their  enthusiasm ;  and  when,  with 
the  advent  of  a  new  Persian  king,  a  brighter  day 
dawned,  the  little  band  was  almost  too  dispirited  to 
avail  itself  of  it.  At  that  crisis,  two  prophets  'blew 
soul-animating  strains,'  and  as  the  narrative  says  else- 
where, '  the  work  prospered  through  the  prophesying 
of  Haggai  and  Zechariah.' 

My  text  comes  from  the  first  of  Zechariah's  pro- 
phecies. In  it  he  lays  the  foundation  for  all  that  he 
has  subsequently  to  say.  He  points  to  the  past,  and 
summons  up  the  august  figures  of  the  great  pre-Exilic 
prophets,  and  reminds  his  contemporaries  that  the 
words  which  they  spoke  had  been  verified  in  the 
experience  of  past  generations.  He  puts  himself  in 
line  with  these,  his  mighty  predecessors,  and  declares 
that,  though  the  hearers  and  the  speakers  of  that 
prophetic  word  had  glided  away  into  the  vast  un- 

t04 


srs.5,6]         THE  UNDYING  WORD  265 

known,  the  word  remained,  lived  still,  and  on  his 
lips  demanded  the  same  obedience  as  it  had  vainly 
demanded  from  the  generation  that  was  past. 

It  has  sometimes  been  supposed  that  of  the  two 
questions  in  my  text  the  first  is  the  Prophet's — •  Your 
fathers,  where  are  they?'  and  that  the  second  is  the 
retort  of  the  people — *  The  prophets,  do  they  live  for 
ever  ? '  •  It  is  true  that  our  fathers  are  gone,  but 
what  about  the  prophets  that  you  are  talking  of  ?  Are 
they  any  better  off?  Are  they  not  dead,  too?'  But 
though  the  separation  of  the  words  into  dialogue  gives 
vivacity,  it  is  wholly  unnecessary.  And  it  seems  to 
me  that  Zechariah's  appeal  is  all  the  more  impressive 
if  we  suppose  that  he  here  gathers  the  mortal  hearers 
and  speakers  of  the  immortal  word  into  one  class,  and 
sets  over  against  them  the  Eternal  Word,  which  lives 
to-day  as  it  did  then,  and  has  new  lessons  for  a  new 
generation.  So  it  is  from  that  point  of  view  that  I 
wish  to  look  at  these  words  now,  and  try  to  gather 
from  them  some  of  the  solemn,  and,  as  it  seems  to  me, 
striking  lessons  which  they  inculcate.  I  follow  with 
absolute  simplicity  the  Prophet's  thoughts. 

I.  The  mortal  hearers  and  speakers  of  the  abiding 
Word. 

*  Your  fathers,  where  are  they  ?  and  the  prophets,  do 
they  live  for  ever  ? '  It  is  all  but  impossible  to  invest 
that  well-known  thought  with  any  fresh  force;  but, 
perhaps,  if  we  look  at  it  from  the  special  angle  from 
which  the  Prophet  here  regards  it,  we  may  get  some 
new  impression  of  the  old  truth.  That  special  angle 
is  to  bring  into  connection  the  Eternal  Word  and  the 
transient  vehicles  and  hearers  of  it. 

Did  you  ever  stand  in  some  roofless,  ruined  cathedral 
or  abbey  church,  and  try  to  gather  round  you  the 


266  ZECHARIAH  [ch.  i. 

generations  that  had  bowed  and  worshipped  there? 
Did  you  ever  step  across  the  threshold  of  some  ancient 
sanctuary,  where  the  feet  of  vanished  generations  had 
worn  down  the  sand-stone  steps  at  the  entrance  ?  It 
is  solemn  to  think  of  the  fleeting  series  of  men;  it  is 
still  more  striking  to  bring  them  into  connection  with 
that  everlasting  Word  which  once  they  heard,  and 
accepted  or  rejected. 

But  let  me  bring  the  thought  a  little  closer.  There 
is  not  a  sitting  in  our  churches  that  has  not  been  sat 
in  by  dead  people.  As  I  stand  here  and  look  round 
I  can  re-people  almost  every  pew  with  faces  that  we 
shall  see  no  more.  Many  of  you,  the  older  habitues 
of  this  place,  can  do  the  same,  and  can  look  and  think, 
*  Ah !  he  used  to  sit  there ;  she  used  to  be  in  that 
corner.'  And  I  can  remember  many  mouldering  lips 
that  have  stood  in  this  place  where  I  stand,  of  friends 
and  brethren  that  are  gone.  'Your  fathers,  where 
are  they  ? '  '  Graves  under  us,  silent,'  is  the  only 
answer.  'And  the  prophets,  do  they  live  for  ever?' 
No  memories  are  shorter-lived  than  the  memories  of 
the  preachers  of  God's  Word. 

Take  another  thought,  that  all  these  past  hearers  and 
speakers  of  the  Word  had  that  Word  verified  in  their 
lives.  'Took  it  not  hold  of  your  fathers?'  Some  of 
them  neglected  it,  and  its  burdens  were  upon  them,  little 
as  they  felt  them  sometimes.  Some  of  them  clave  to  it, 
and  accepted  it,  and  its  blessed  promises  were  all  ful- 
filled to  them.  Not  one  of  those  who,  for  the  brief 
period  of  their  earthly  lives,  came  in  contact  with  that 
divine  message  but  realised,  more  or  less  consciously, 
some  blessedly  and  some  in  darkened  lives  and  ruined 
careers,  the  solemn  truth  of  its  promises  and  of  its 
threatenings.    The  Word  may  have  been  received,  or  it 


vs.  5, 6]  THE  UNDYING  WORD  267 

may  have  been  neglected,  by  the  past  generations ;  but 
whether  the  members  thereof  put  out  a  hand  to  accept, 
or  withheld  their  grasp,  whether  they  took  hold  of  it 
or  it  took  hold  of  them — wherever  they  are  now,  their 
earthly  relation  to  that  word  is  a  determining  factor  in 
their  condition.  The  syllables  died  away  into  empty 
air,  the  messages  were  forgotten,  but  the  men  that 
ministered  them  are  eternally  influenced  by  the  faith- 
fulness of  their  ministrations,  and  the  men  that  heard 
them  are  eternally  affected  by  the  reception  or  rejec- 
tion of  that  word.  So,  when  we  summon  around  us 
the  congregation  of  the  dead,  which  is  more  numerous 
than  the  audience  of  the  living  to  whom  I  now  speak, 
the  lesson  that  their  silent  presence  teaches  us  is, 
'  Wherefore  we  should  give  the  more  earnest  heed  to 
the  things  that  we  have  heard.' 

II.  Let  us  note  the  abiding  Word,  which  these  tran- 
sient generations  of  hearers  and  speakers  have  had  to 
do  with. 

It  is  maddening  to  think  of  the  sure  decay  and  dis- 
solution of  all  human  strength,  beauty,  wisdom,  unless 
that  thought  brings  with  it  immediately,  like  a  pair  of 
coupled  stars,  of  which  the  one  is  bright  and  the  other 
dark,  the  corresponding  thought  of  that  which  does  not 
pass,  and  is  unaffected  by  time  and  change.  Just  as 
reason  requires  some  unalterable  substratum,  below 
all  the  fleeting  phenomena  of  the  changeful  creation — 
a  God  who  is  the  Rock-basis  of  all,  the  staple  to  which 
all  the  links  hang — so  we  are  driven  back  and  back  and 
back,  by  the  very  fact  of  the  transiency  of  the  transient, 
to  grasp,  for  a  refuge  and  a  stay,  the  permanency  of  the 
permanent.  '  In  the  year  that  King  Uzziah  died  I  saw 
the  Lord  sitting  upon  a  throne ' — the  passing  away  of 
the  mortal  shadow  of  sovereignty  revealed  the  undying 


268  ZECHARIAH  [en.  i. 

and  true  King.  It  is  blessed  for  us  when  the  lesson 
which  the  fleeting  of  all  that  can  flee  away  reads  to  us 
is  that,  beneath  it  all,  there  is  the  Unchanging.  When 
the  leaves  drop  from  the  boughs  of  the  trees  that  veil 
the  face  of  the  cliff,  then  the  steadfast  rock  is  visible ; 
and  when  the  generations,  like  leaves,  drop  and  rot, 
then  the  rock  background  should  stand  out  the  more 
clearly. 

Zechariah  meant  by  the  'word  of  God'  simply  the 
prophetic  utterances  about  the  destiny  and  the  punish- 
ment of  his  nation.  We  ought  to  mean  by  the  '  word 
of  God,  which  liveth  and  abideth  for  ever,'  not  merely 
the  written  embodiment  of  it  in  the  Old  or  New  Testa- 
ment, but  the  Personal  Word,  the  Incarnate  Word,  the 
everlasting  Son  of  the  Father,  who  came  upon  earth 
to  be  God's  mouthpiece  and  utterance,  and  who  is  for 
us  all  the  Word,  the  Eternal  Word  of  the  living  God. 
It  is  His  perpetual  existence  rather  than  the  con- 
tinuous duration  of  the  written  word,  declaration  of 
Himself  though  it  is,  that  is  mighty  for  our  strength 
and  consolation  when  we  think  of  the  transient 
generations. 

Christ  lives.  That  is  the  deepest  meaning  of  the 
ancient  saying,  'AH  flesh  is  grass.  .  .  .  The  Word  of 
the  Lord  endureth  for  ever.'  He  lives;  therefore  we 
can  front  change  and  decay  in  all  around  calmly  and 
triumphantly.  It  matters  not  though  the  prophets  and 
their  hearers  pass  away.  Men  depart;  Christ  abides. 
Luther  was  once  surprised  by  some  friends  sitting  at 
a  table  from  which  a  meal  had  been  removed,  and 
thoughtfully  tracing  with  his  fingers  upon  its  surface 
with  some  drop  of  water  or  wine  the  one  word  '  Vivit'; 
He  lives.  He  fell  back  upon  that  when  all  around 
was  dark.    Yes,  men  may  go ;  what  of  that  ?     Aaron 


vs.  6, 6]  THE  UNDYING  WORD  269 

may  have  to  ascend  to  the  summit  of  Hor,  and  put  off 
his  priestly  garments  and  die  there.  Moses  may  have 
to  climb  Pisgah,  and  with  one  look  at  the  land  which 
he  must  never  tread,  die  there  alone  by  the  kiss  of  God, 
as  the  Rabbis  say.  Is  the  host  below  leaderless  ?  The 
Pillar  of  Cloud  lies  still  over  the  Tabernacle,  and  burns 
steadfast  and  guiding  in  front  of  the  files  of  Israel. 
*  Your  fathers,  where  are  they  ?  The  prophets,  do  they 
live  for  ever?'  'Jesus  Christ  is  the  same  yesterday 
and  to-day  and  for  ever.' 

Another  consideration  to  be  drawn  from  this  contrast 
is,  since  we  have  this  abiding  Word,  let  us  not  dread 
changes,  however  startling  and  revolutionary.  Jesus 
Christ  does  not  change.  But  there  is  a  human  element 
in  the  Church's  conceptions  of  Jesus  Christ,  and  still 
more  in  its  working  out  of  the  principles  of  the  Gospel 
in  institutions  and  forms,  which  partakes  of  the  tran- 
siency of  the  men  from  whom  it  has  come.  In  such  a 
time  as  this,  when  everything  is  going  into  the  melting- 
pot,  and  a  great  many  timid  people  are  trembling  for 
the  Ark  of  God,  quite  unnecessarily  as  it  seems  to  me, 
it  is  of  prime  importance  for  the  calmness  and  the 
wisdom  and  the  courage  of  Christian  people,  that  they 
should  grasp  firmly  the  distinction  between  the  divine 
treasure  which  is  committed  to  the  churches,  and  the 
earthen  vessels  in  which  it  has  been  enshrined.  Jesus 
Christ,  the  man  Jesus,  the  divine  person,  His  incarna- 
tion, His'  sacrifice.  His  resurrection,  His  ascension,  the 
gift  of  His  Spirit  to  abide  for  ever  with  His  Church 
— these  are  the  permanent  *  things  which  cannot  be 
shaken.'  And  creeds  and  churches  and  formulas  and 
forms — these  are  the  human  elements  which  are  cap- 
able of  variation,  and  which  need  variation  from  time 
to  time.     No  more  is  the  substance  of  that  eternal 


270  ZECHARIAH  [ch.  l 

Gospel  affected  by  the  changes,  which  are  possible  on 
its  vesture,  than  is  the  stateliness  of  some  catbedral 
touched,  when  the  reformers  go  in  and  sweep  out  the 
rubbish  and  the  trumpery  which  have  masked  the  fair 
outlines  of  its  architecture,  and  vulgarised  the  majesty 
of  its  stately  sweep.  Brethren !  let  us  fix  this  in  our 
hearts,  that  nothing  which  is  of  Christ  can  perish,  and 
nothing  which  is  of  man  can  or  should  endure.  The 
more  firmly  we  grasp  the  distinction  between  the  per- 
manent and  the  transient  in  existing  embodiments  of 
Christian  truth,  the  more  calm  shall  we  be  amidst  the 
surges  of  contending  opinions.  •  He  that  believeth  shall 
not  make  haste.' 

III.  Lastly,  the  present  generation  and  its  relation  to 
the  abiding  Word. 

Zechariah  did  not  hesitate  to  put  himself  in  line  with 
the  mighty  forms  of  Isaiah,  and  Jeremiah,  and  Ezekiel, 
and  Hosea.  He,  too,  was  a  prophet.  We  claim,  of 
course,  no  such  authority  for  present  utterers  of  that 
eternal  message,  but  we  do  claim  for  our  message  a 
higher  authority  than  the  authority  of  this  ancient 
Prophet.  He  felt  that  the  word  of  God  that  was  put 
into  his  lips  was  a  new  word,  addressed  to  a  new 
generation,  and  with  new  lessons  for  new  circum- 
stances, fitting  as  close  to  the  wants  of  the  little 
band  of  exiles  as  the  former  messages,  which  it  suc- 
ceeded, had  fitted  to  the  wants  of  their  generation. 
We  have  no  such  change  in  the  message,  for  Jesua 
Christ  speaks  to  us  all,  speaks  to  all  times  and  to  all 
circumstances,  and  to  every  generation.  And  so,  just 
as  Zechariah  based  upon  the  history  of  the  past  his 
appeal  for  obedience  and  acceptance,  the  considerations 
which  I  have  been  trying  to  dwell  upon  bring  with 
them  stringent  obligations  to  us  who  stand,  however 


Y8.5,6]  THE  UNDYING  WORD  271 

unworthy,  in  the  place  of  the  generations  that  are 
gone,  as  the  hearers  and  ministers  of  the  Word  of  God. 

Let  me  put  two  or  three  very  simple  and  homely 
exhortations.  First,  see  to  it,  brother,  that  you  accept 
that  Word.  By  acceptance  I  do  not  mean  a  mere 
negative  attitude,  which  is  very  often  the  result  of  lack 
of  interest,  the  negative  attitude  of  simply  not  reject- 
ing; but  I  mean  the  opening  not  only  of  your  minds 
but  of  your  hearts  to  it.  For  if  what  I  have  been  say- 
ing is  true,  and  the  Word  of  God  has  for  its  highest 
manifestation  Jesus  Christ  Himself,  then  you  cannot 
accept  a  person  by  pure  head-work.  You  must  open 
your  hearts  and  all  your  natures,  and  let  Him  come  in 
with  His  love,  with  His  pity,  with  His  inspiration  of 
strength  and  virtue  and  holiness,  and  you  must  yield 
yourselves  wholly  to  Him.  Think  of  the  generations 
that  are  gone.  Think  of  their  brief  moment  when  the 
great  salvation  was  offered  to  them.  Think  of  how, 
whether  they  received  or  rejected  it,  that  Word  took 
hold  upon  them.  Think  of  how  they  regard  it  now, 
wherever  they  are  in  the  dimness  ;  and  be  you  wise  in 
time  and  be  not  as  those  of  your  fathers  who  rejected 
the  Word. 

Hold  it  fast.  In  this  time  of  unrest  make  sure  of  your 
grasp  of  the  eternal,  central  core  of  Christianity,  Jesus 
Christ  Himself,  the  divine-human  Saviour  of  the  world. 
There  are  too  many  of  us  whose  faith  oozes  out  at  their 
finger  ends,  simply  because  they  have  so  many  around 
them  that  question  and  doubt  and  deny.  Do  not  let 
the  floating  icebergs  bring  down  your  temperature ; 
and  have  a  better  reason  for  not  believing,  if  you  do 
not  believe,  than  that  so  many  and  such  influential  and 
authoritative  men  have  ceased  to  believe.  When  Jesus 
asks,  'Will  ye  also  go  away  ? '  our  answer  should  be, 


272  ZECHARIAH  [oh.  i. 

•  Lord,  to  whom  shall  we  go  ?  Thou  hast  the  words  of 
eternal  life.' 

Accept  Him,  hold  Him  fast,  trust  to  His  guidance  in 
present  day  questions.  Zechariah  felt  that  his  message 
belonged  to  the  generation  to  whom  he  spoke.  It  was 
a  new  message.  We  have  no  new  message,  but  there 
are  new  truths  to  be  evolved  from  the  old  message. 
The  questionings  and  problems,  social,  economical, 
intellectual,  moral — shall  I  say  political  ? — of  this  day, 
will  find  their  solution  in  that  ancient  word,  '  God  so 
loved  the  world,  that  He  gave  His  only  begotten  Son, 
that  whosoever  believeth  in  Him  should  not  perish.' 
There  is  the  key  to  all  problems.  *  In  Him  are  hid  all 
the  treasures  and  wisdom  of  knowledge.' 

Zechariah  pointed  to  the  experiences  of  a  past 
generation  as  the  basis  of  his  appeal.  We  can  point 
back  to  eighteen  centuries,  and  say  that  the  experi- 
ences of  these  centuries  confirm  the  truth  that  Jesus 
Christ  is  the  Saviour  of  the  world.  The  blessedness, 
the  purity,  the  power,  the  peace,  the  hope  which  He 
has  breathed  into  humanity,  the  subsidiary  and  accom- 
panying material  and  intellectual  prosperity  and  bless- 
ings that  attend  His  message,  its  independence  of 
human  instruments,  its  adaptation  to  all  varieties  of 
class,  character,  condition,  geographical  position,  its 
power  of  recuperating  itself  from  corruptions  and  dis- 
tortions, its  undiminished  adaptedness  to  the  needs  of 
this  generation  and  of  each  of  us — enforce  the  strin- 
gency of  the  exhortation,  and  confirm  the  truth  of  the 
assertion:  'This  is  My  beloved  Son;  hear  ye  Him  I' 
•The  voice  said.  Cry.  And  I  said.  What  shall  I  cry? 
All  flesh  is  grass,  and  all  the  goodliness  thereof  as  the 
flower  of  the  field  :  the  grass  withereth,  and  the  flower 
thereof  falleth  away :  but  the  Word  of  our  God  shall 


vs.  6, 6]    THE  CITY  WITHOUT  WALLS     273 

stand  for  ever.'  Three  hundred  years  after  Isaiah  a 
triumphant  Apostle  added,  '  This  is  the  word  which 
by  the  Gospel  is  preached  unto  you.'  Eighteen  hundred 
years  after  Peter  we  can  echo  his  confident  declaration, 
and,  with  the  history  of  these  centuries  to  support  our 
faith,  can  affirm  that  the  Christ  of  the  Gospel  and  the 
Gospel  of  the  Christ  are  in  deed  and  in  truth  the  Living 
Word  of  the  Living  God. 


THE  CITY  WITHOUT  WALLS 

•Jerusalem  shall  be  inhabited  as  towns  without  walls.  ...  5.  For  I,  salth  the 
Lord,  will  be  unto  her  a  wall  of  fire  round  about,  and  will  be  the  glory  in  the 
midst  of  her.'— Zechariah  ii.  4,  5. 

Zechabiah  was  the  Prophet  of  the  returning  exiles, 
and  his  great  work  was  to  hearten  them  for  their 
difficult  task,  with  their  small  resources  and  their 
many  foes,  and  to  insist  that  the  prime  condition  to 
success,  on  the  part  of  that  portion  of  the  nation  that 
had  returned,  was  holiness.  So  his  visions,  of  which 
there  is  a  whole  series,  are  very  largely  concerned  with 
the  building  of  the  Temple  and  of  the  city.  In  this 
one,  he  sees  a  man  with  a  measuring-rod  in  his  hand 
coming  forth  to  take  the  dimensions  of  the  still  un- 
existing  city  of  God.  The  words  that  I  have  read  are 
the  centre  portion  of  that  vision.  You  notice  that  there 
are  three  clauses,  and  that  the  first  in  order  is  the  conse- 
quence of  the  other  two.  'Jerusalem  shall  be  builded  as 
a  city  without  walls  .  .  .  for  I  will  be  a  wall  of  fire  round 
about  her,  and  the  glory  in  the  midst  of  her.' 

And  that  exuberant  promise  was  spoken  about  the 
Jerusalem  over  which  Christ  wept  when  he  foresaw  its 
inevitable  destruction.  When  the  Romans  had  cast  a 
torch  into  the  Temple,  and  the  streets  of  the  city  were 

S 


274  ZECHARIAH  [ch.  il 

running  with  blood,  what  had  become  of  Zechariah's 
dream  of  a  wall  of  fire  round  about  her  ?  Then  can  the 
divine  fire  be  quenched?  Yes.  And  who  quenched  it? 
Not  the  Romans,  but  the  people  that  lived  within  that 
flaming  rampart.  The  apparent  failure  of  the  promise 
carries  the  lesson  for  churches  and  individuals  to-day, 
that  in  spite  of  such  glowing  predictions,  there  may 
again  sound  the  voice  that  the  legend  says  was  heard 
within  the  Temple,  on  the  night  before  Jerusalem  fell. 
'Let  us  depart,'  and  there  was  a  rustling  of  unseen 
wings,  and  on  the  morrow  the  legionaries  were  in  the 
shrine.  *  If  God  spared  not  the  natural  branches,  take 
heed  lest  He  also  spare  not  thee.' 

Now  let  us  look,  in  the  simplest  possible  way,  at  these 
three  clauses,  and  the  promises  that  are  in  them  ;  keep- 
ing in  mind  that,  like  all  the  divine  promises,  they  are 
conditional. 

The  first  is  this : — 

I.  •  I  will  be  a  wall  of  fire  round  about  her.' 

I  need  not  dwell  on  the  vividness  and  beauty  of  that 
metaphor.  These  encircling  flames  will  consume  all 
antagonism,  and  defy  ail  approach.  But  let  me  remind 
you  that  the  conditional  promise  was  intended  for 
Judaea  and  Jerusalem,  and  was  fulfilled  in  literal  fact. 
So  long  as  the  city  obeyed  and  trusted  God  it  was  im- 
pregnable, though  all  the  nations  stood  round  about  it, 
like  dogs  round  a  sheep.  The  fulfilment  of  the  promise 
has  passed  over,  with  all  the  rest  that  characterised 
Israel's  position,  to  the  Christian  Church,  and  to-day, 
in  the  midst  of  all  the  agitations  of  opinion,  and  all  the 
vauntings  of  men  about  an  effete  Christianity,  and 
dead  churches,  it  is  as  true  as  ever  it  was  that  the  living 
Church  of  God  is  eternal.  If  it  had  not  been  that  there 
was  a  God  as  a  wall  of  fire  round  about  the  Church,  it 


iv8.4,5]  THE  CITY  WITHOUT  WALLS    275 

would  have  been  wiped  off  the  face  of  the  earth  long 
ago.  If  nothing  else  had  killed  it  the  faults  of  its 
members  would  have  done  so.  The  continuance  of  the 
Church  is  a  perpetual  miracle,  when  you  take  into 
account  the  weakness,  and  the  errors,  and  the  follies, 
and  the  stupidities,  and  the  narrownesses,  and  the  sins, 
of  the  people  who  in  any  given  day  represent  it.  That 
it  should  stand  at  all,  and  that  it  should  conquer, 
seems  to  me  to  be  as  plain  a  demonstration  of  the 
present  working  of  God,  as  is  the  existence  still,  as  a 
separate  individuality  amongst  the  peoples  of  the  earth, 
of  His  ancient  people,  the  Jews.  Who  was  it  who  said, 
when  somebody  asked  him  for  the  best  proof  of  the 
truth  of  Christianity,  '  The  Jews '  ?  and  so  we  may  say, 
if  you  want  a  demonstration  that  God  is  working  in 
the  world,  'Look  at  the  continuance  of  the  Christian 
Church.' 

In  spite  of  all  the  vauntings  of  people  that  have 
already  discounted  its  fall,  and  are  talking  as  if  it 
needed  no  more  to  be  reckoned  with,  that  calm  con- 
fidence is  the  spirit  in  which  we  are  to  look  around  and 
forward.  It  does  not  become  any  Christian  ever  to 
have  the  smallest  scintillation  of  a  fear  that  the  ship 
that  bears  Jesus  Christ  can  fail  to  come  to  land,  or  can 
sink  in  the  midst  of  the  waters.  There  was  once  a 
timid  would-be  helper  who  put  out  his  hand  to  hold  up 
the  Ark  of  God.  He  need  not  have  been  afraid.  The 
oxen  might  stumble,  and  the  cart  roll  about,  but  the 
Ark  was  safe  and  stable.  A  great  deal  may  go,  but  the 
wall  of  fire  will  be  around  the  Church.  In  regard  to  its 
existence,  as  in  regard  to  the  immortal  being  of  each 
of  its  members,  the  great  word  remains  for  ever  true : 
*  Because  I  live  ye  shall  live  also.' 

But  do  not  let  us  forget  that  this  great  promise  does 


276  ZECHARIAH  [ch.ii. 

not  belong  only  to  the  Church  as  a  whole,  but  that  we 
have  each  to  bring  it  down  to  our  own  individual  lives, 
and  to  be  quite  sure  of  this,  that  in  spite  of  all  that 
sense  says,  in  spite  of  all  that  quivering  hearts  and 
weeping  eyes  may  seem  to  prove,  there  is  a  wall  of  fire 
round  each  of  us,  if  we  are  keeping  near  Jesus  Christ, 
through  which  it  is  as  impossible  that  any  real  evil 
should  pass  and  get  at  us,  as  it  would  be  impossible 
that  any  living  thing  should  pass  through  the  flaming 
battlements  that  the  Prophet  saw  round  his  ideal  city. 
Only  we  have  to  interpret  that  promise  by  faith  and 
not  by  sense,  and  we  have  to  make  it  possible  that  it 
shall  be  fulfilled  by  keeping  inside  the  wall,  and  trust- 
ing to  it.  As  faith  dwindles,  the  fiery  wall  burns  dim, 
and  evil  can  get  across  its  embers,  and  can  get  at  us. 
Keep  within  the  battlements,  and  they  will  flame  up 
bright  and  impassable,  with  a  fire  that  on  the  outer 
side  consumes,  but  to  those  within  is  a  fire  that 
cherishes  and  warms. 

II.  The  next  point  of  the  promise  passes  into  a  more 
intimate  region.  It  is  well  to  have  a  defence  from  that 
which  is  without  us ;  but  it  is  more  needful  to  have,  if 
a  comparison  can  be  made  between  the  two,  a  glory  '  in 
the  midst '  of  us. 

The  one  is  external  defence;  the  other  inward  il- 
lumination, with  all  which  light  symbolises — knowledge, 
joy,  purity. 

There  is  even  more  than  that  meant  by  this  great 
promise.  For  notice  that  emphatic  little  word  the — the 
glory,  not  a  glory — in  the  midst  of  her.  Now  you  all 
know  what '  the  glory'  was.  It  was  that  symbolic  Light 
that  spoke  of  the  special  presence  of  God,  and  went 
with  the  Children  of  Israel  in  their  wanderings,  and 
sat  between  the  Cherubim.    There  was  no  '  Shechinah,' 


vs.  4, 5]   THE  CITY  WITHOUT  WALLS     277 

as  it  is  technically  called,  in  that  second  Temple.  But 
yet  the  Prophet  says,  '  The  glory ' — the  actual  presence 
of  God — '  shall  be  in  the  midst  of  her,'  and  the  meaning 
of  that  great  promise  is  taught  us  by  the  very  last 
vision  in  the  New  Testament,  in  which  the  Seer  of  the 
Apocalypse  says,  '  The  glory  of  the  Lord  did  lighten  it ' 
(evidently  quoting  Zechariah),  'and  the  Lamb  is  the 
light  thereof.'  So  the  city  is  lit  as  by  one  central  glow 
of  radiance  that  flashes  its  beams  into  every  corner, 
and  therefore  '  there  shall  be  no  night  there.' 

Now  this  promise,  too,  bears  on  churches  and  on 
individuals.  On  the  Church  as  a  whole  it  bears  in  this 
way :  the  only  means  by  which  a  Christian  community 
can  fulfil  its  function,  and  be  the  light  of  the  world,  is 
by  having  the  presence  of  God,  in  no  metaphor,  the 
actual  presence  of  the  illuminating  Spirit  in  its  midst. 
If  it  has  not  that,  it  may  have  anything  and  everything 
else — wealth,  culture,  learning,  eloquence,  influence  in 
the  world — but  all  is  of  no  use ;  it  will  be  darkness. 
We  are  light  only  in  proportion  as  we  are  '  light  in  the 
Lord.'  As  long  as  we,  as  communities,  keep  our  hearts 
in  touch  with  Him,  so  long  do  we  shine.  Break  the 
contact,  and  the  light  fades  and  flickers  out. 

The  same  thing  is  true,  dear  brethren,  about  indi- 
viduals. For  each  of  us  the  secret  of  joy,  of  purity,  of 
knowledge,  is  that  we  be  holding  close  communion 
with  God.  If  we  have  Him  in  the  depths  of  our  hearts, 
then,  and  only  then,  shall  we  be  '  light  in  the  Lord.' 

And  now  look  at  the  last  point  which  follows,  as  I 
have  said,  as  the  result  of  the  other  two. 

HI.  '  Jerusalem  shall  be  without  walls.* 

It  is  to  be  like  the  defenceless  villages  scattered  up 
and  down  over  Israel.  There  is  no  need  for  bulwarks 
of  stone.    The  wall  of  fire  is  round  about.   The  Prophet 


278  ZECHARI  AH  [oh.  ii. 

has  a  vision  of  a  great  city,  of  a  type  unknown  in  those 
old  times,  though  familiar  to  us  in  our  more  peaceful 
days,  where  there  was  no  hindrance  to  expansion  by 
encircling  ramparts,  no  crowding  together  of  the  people 
because  they  needed  to  hide  behind  the  city  walls ;  and 
where  the  growing  community  could  spread  out  into 
the  outer  suburbs,  and  have  fresh  air  and  ample  space. 
That  is  the  vision  of  the  manner  of  city  that  Jerusalem 
was  to  be.  It  did  not  come  true,  but  the  ideal  was  this. 
It  has  not  yet  come  true  sufficiently  in  regard  to  the 
churches  of  to-day,  but  it  ought  to  be  the  goal  to  which 
they  are  tending.  The  more  a  Christian  community  is 
independent  of  external  material  supports  and  defences 
the  better. 

I  am  not  going  to  talk  about  the  policy  or  impolicy 
of  Established  Churches,  as  they  are  called.  But  it 
seems  to  me  that  the  principle  that  is  enshrined  in  this 
vision  is  their  condemnation.  Never  mind  about  stone 
and  lime  walls,  trust  in  God  and  you  will  not  need  them, 
and  you  will  be  strong  and  'established'  just  in  the 
proportion  in  which  you  are  cut  loose  from  all  depend- 
ence upon,  and  consequent  subordination  to,  the  civil 
power. 

But  there  is  another  thought  that  I  might  suggest, 
though  I  do  not  know  that  it  is  directly  in  the  line  of 
the  Prophet's  vision ;  and  that  is — a  Christian  Church 
should  neither  depend  on,  nor  be  cribbed  and  cramped 
by,  men-made  defences  of  any  kind.  Luther  tells  us 
somewhere,  in  his  parabolic  way,  of  people  that  wept 
because  there  were  no  visible  pillars  to  hold  up  the 
heavens,  and  were  afraid  that  the  sky  would  fall  upon 
their  heads.  No,  no,  there  is  no  fear  of  that  happening, 
for  an  unseen  hand  holds  them  up.  A  church  that 
hides  behind    the   fortifications  of   its    grandfathers' 


vs.  4,  5]   THE  CITY  WITHOUT  WALLS     279 

erection  has  no  room  for  expansion ;  and  if  it  has  no 
room  for  expansion  it  will  not  long  continue  as  large 
as  it  is.  It  must  either  grow  greater,  or  grow,  and 
deserve  to  grow,  less. 

The  same  thing  is  true,  dear  brethren,  about  ourselves 
individually.  Zechariah's  prophecy  was  never  meant  to 
prevent  what  he  himself  helped  to  further,  the  building 
of  the  actual  walls  of  the  actual  city.  And  our  depend- 
ence upon  God  is  not  to  be  so  construed  as  that  we  are 
to  waive  our  own  common-sense  and  our  own  effort. 
That  is  not  faith ;  it  is  fanaticism. 

We  have  to  build  ourselves  round,  in  this  world,  with 
other  things  than  the  '  wall  of  fire,'  but  in  all  our  build- 
ing we  have  to  say,  '  Except  the  Lord  build  the  house, 
they  labour  in  vain  that  build  it.  Except  the  Lord 
keep  the  city,  the  watchers  watch  in  vain.'  But  yet 
neither  Jerusalem  nor  the  Church,  nor  the  earthly 
state  of  that  believer  who  lives  most  fully  the  life 
of  faith,  exhausts  this  promise.  It  waits  for  the  day 
when  the  city  shall  descend,  '  like  a  bride  adorned  for 
her  husband,  having  no  need  of  the  sun  nor  of  the  moon, 
for  the  glory  .  .  .  lightens  it.'  Having  walls,  indeed, 
but  for  splendour,  not  for  defence ;  and  having  gates, 
which  have  only  one  of  the  functions  of  a  gate — to 
stand  wide  open,  to  the  east  and  the  west,  and  the 
north  and  the  south,  for  the  nations  to  enter  in ;  and 
never  needing  to  be  barred  against  enemies  by  day, 
'for  there  shall  be  no  night  there.' 


A  VISION  OF  JUDGMENT  AND  CLEANSING 

'  And  he  shewed  me  Joshua  the  high  priest  standing  hefore  the  Angel  of  the 
Lord,  and  Satan  standing  at  his  right  hand  to  resist  him.  2.  And  the  Lord  said 
unto  Satan,  The  Lord  rebuke  thee,  O  Satan ;  even  the  Lord  that  hath  chosen  Jeru- 
salem rebuke  thee :  is  not  this  a  brand  plucked  out  of  the  fire?  3  Now  Joshua  was 
clothed  with  filthy  garments,  and  stood  before  the  Angel,  i.  And  He  answered  and 
spake  unto  those  that  stood  before  Him,  saying.  Take  away  the  filthy  garments 
from  him.  And  unto  him  He  said,  Behold,  I  have  caused  thine  iniquity  to  pasa 
from  thee,  and  I  will  clothe  thee  with  change  of  raiment.  5.  And  I  said,  Let  them 
set  a  fair  mitre  upon  his  head.  So  they  set  a  fair  mitre  upon  his  head,  and  clothed 
him  with  garments.  And  the  Angel  of  the  Lord  stood  by.  6.  And  the  Angel  of  the 
Lord  protested  unto  Joshua,  saying,  7.  Thus  saith  the  Lord  of  Hosts,  If  thou  wilt 
walk  in  My  ways,  and  if  thou  wilt  keep  My  charge,  then  thou  shalt  also  judge  My 
house,  and  shalt  also  keep  My  courts,  and  I  will  give  thee  places  to  walk  among 
these  that  stand  by.  8.  Hear  now,  O  Joshua  the  high  priest,  thou,  and  thy  fellows 
that  sit  before  thee :  for  they  are  men  wondered  at :  for,  behold,  I  will  bring  forth 
My  servant  The  Branch.  9.  For  behold  the  stone  that  I  have  laid  before  Joshua ; 
upon  one  stone  shall  be  seven  eyes :  behold,  I  will  engrave  the  graving  thereof, 
saith  the  Lord  of  Hosts,  and  I  will  remove  the  iniquity  of  that  land  in  one  day.  10. 
In  that  day,  saith  the  Lord  of  Hosts,  shall  ye  call  every  man  his  neighbour  under 
the  vine  and  under  the  fig-tree.'— Zechariah  iii.  1-10. 

Zechariah  worked  side  by  side  with  Haggai  to  quicken 
the  religious  life  of  the  people,  and  thus  to  remove  the 
gravest  hindrances  to  the  work  of  rebuilding  the  Temple. 
Inward  indifference,  not  outward  opposition,  is  the  real 
reason  for  slow  progress  in  God's  work,  and  prophets 
who  see  visions  and  preach  repentance  are  the  true 
practical  men. 

This  vision  followed  Haggai's  prophecy  at  the  interval 
of  a  month.  It  falls  into  two  parts — a  symbolical  vision 
and  a  series  of  promises  founded  on  it. 

I.  The  Symbolical  Vision  (vs.  1-5). — The  scene  of  the 
vision  is  left  undetermined,  and  the  absence  of  any 
designation  of  locality  gives  the  picture  the  sublimity 
of  indefiniteness.  Three  figures,  seen  he  knows  not 
where,  stand  clear  before  the  Prophet's  inward  eye. 
They  were  shown  him  by  an  unnamed  person,  who  is 
evidently  Jehovah  Himself.  The  real  and  the  ideal  are 
marvellously  mingled  in  the  conception  of  Joshua  the 
high  priest — the  man  whom  the  people  saw  every  day 
sso 


vs.  1-10]     A  VISION  OF  JUDGMENT  281 

going  about  Jerusalem — standing  at  the  bar  of  God,  with 
Satan  as  his  accuser.  The  trial  is  in  process  when  the 
Prophet  is  permitted  to  see.  We  do  not  hear  the  plead- 
ings on  either  side,  but  the  sentence  is  solemnly  recorded. 
The  accusations  are  dismissed,  their  bringer  rebuked, 
and  in  token  of  acquittal,  the  filthy  garments  which 
the  accused  had  worn  are  changed  for  the  full  festal 
attire  of  the  high  priest. 

What,  then,  is  the  meaning  of  this  grand  symbolism  ? 
The  first  point  to  keep  well  in  view  is  the  representa- 
tive character  of  the  high  priest.  He  appears  as  laden 
not  with  individual  but  national  sins.  In  him  Israel  is, 
as  it  were,  concentrated,  and  what  befalls  him  is  the 
image  of  what  befalls  .the  nation.  His  dirty  dress  is 
the  familiar  symbol  of  sin ;  and  he  wears  it,  just  as  he 
wore  his  sacerdotal  dress,  in  his  official  capacity,  as  the 
embodied  nation.  He  stands  before  the  judgment  seat, 
bearing  not  his  own  but  the  people's  sins. 

Two  great  truths  are  thereby  taught,  which  are  as 
true  to-day  as  ever.  The  first  is  that  representation  is 
essential  to  priesthood.  It  was  so  in  shadowy  and 
external  fashion  in  Israel ;  it  is  so  in  deepest  and  most 
blessed  reality  in  Christ's  priesthood.  He  stands  before 
God  as  our  representative — 'And  the  Lord  hath  made 
to  meet  on  Him  the  iniquity  of  us  all.'  If  by  faith  we 
unite  ourselves  with  Him,  there  ensues  a  wondrous 
transference  of  characteristics,  so  that  our  sin  becomes 
His,  and  His  righteousness  becomes  ours ;  and  that  in 
no  mere  artificial  or  forensic  sense,  but  in  inmost  reality. 
Theologians  talk  of  a  coinmunicatio  idiomatum  as  be- 
tween the  human  and  the  divine  elements  in  Christ. 
There  is  an  analogous  passage  of  the  attributes  of 
either  to  the  other,  in  the  relation  of  the  believer  to  his 
Saviour. 


282  ZECHARIAH  [ch.  m. 

The  second  thought  in  this  symbolic  appearance  of 
Joshua  before  the  angel  of  the  Lord  is  that  the  sins  of 
God's  people  are  even  now  present  before  His  perfect 
judgment,  as  reasons  for  withdrawing  from  them  His 
favour.  That  is  a  solemn  truth,  which  should  never  be 
forgotten.  A  Christian  man's  sins  do  accuse  him  at  the 
bar  of  God.  They  are  all  visible  there ;  and  so  far  as 
their  tendency  goes,  they  are  like  wedges  driven  in  to 
rend  him  from  God. 

But  the  second  figure  in  the  vision  is  *  the  Satan,' 
standing  in  the  plaintiff's  place  at  the  Judge's  right 
hand,  to  accuse  Joshua.  The  Old  Testament  teaching 
as  to  the  evil  spirit  who  '  accuses '  good  men  is  not  so 
developed  as  that  of  the  New,  which  is  quite  natural, 
inasmuch  as  the  shadow  of  bright  light  is  deeper  than 
that  of  faint  rays.  It  is  most  full  in  the  latest  books, 
as  here  and  in  Job;  but  doctrinal  inferences  drawn 
from  such  highly  imaginative  symbolism  as  this  are 
precarious.  No  one  who  accepts  the  authority  of  our 
Lord  can  well  deny  the  existence  and  activity  of  a 
malignant  spirit,  who  would  fain  make  the  most  of 
men's  sins,  and  use  them  as  a  means  of  separating  their 
doers  from  God.    That  is  the  conception  here. 

But  the  main  stress  of  the  vision  lies,  not  on  the  accuser 
or  his  accusation,  but  on  the  Judge's  sentence,  which 
alone  is  recorded.  '  The  Angel  of  the  Lord '  is  named  in 
verse  1  as  the  Judge,  while  the  sentence  in  verse  2  is 
spoken  by  '  the  Lord.'  It  would  lead  us  far  away  from 
our  purpose  to  inquire  whether  that  Angel  of  the  Lord 
is  an  earlier  manifestation  of  the  eternal  Son,  who 
afterwards  became  flesh — a  kind  of  preluding  or  re- 
hearsing of  the  Incarnation.  But  in  any  case,  God  so 
dwells  in  Him  as  that  what  the  Angel  says  God  says 
and  the  speaker  varies  as  in  our  text.    The  accuser  is 


Ts.1-10]    A  VISION  OF  JUDGMENT  283 

rebuked,  and  God's  rebuke  is  not  a  mere  word,  but 
brings  with  it  punishment.  The  malicious  accusations 
have  failed,  and  their  aim  is  to  be  gathered  from  the 
language  which  announces  their  miscarriage.  Ob- 
viously Satan  sought  to  procure  the  withdrawal  of 
divine  favour  from  Joshua,  because  of  his  sin ;  that  is, 
to  depose  the  nation  from  its  place  as  the  covenant 
people,  because  of  its  transgressions  of  the  covenant. 
Satan  here  represents  what  might  otherwise  have  been 
called,  in  theological  language, '  the  demands  of  justice.' 
The  answer  given  him  is  deeply  instructive  as  to  the 
grounds  of  the  divine  forbearance. 

Note  that  Joshua's  guilt  as  the  representative  of  the 
people  is  not  denied,  but  tacitly  admitted  and  actually 
spoken  of  in  verse  4.  Why,  then,  does  not  the  accuser 
have  his  way?  For  two  reasons.  God  has  chosen 
Jerusalem.  His  great  purpose,  the  fruit  of  His  un- 
deserved mercy,  is  not  to  be  turned  aside  by  man's  sins. 
The  thought  is  the  same  as  that  of  Jeremiah :  '  If 
heaven  above  can  be  measured  ...  then  I  will  also  cast 
off  all  the  seed  of  Israel  for  all  that  they  have  done' 
(Jer.  xxxi.  37).  Again,  the  fact  that  Joshua  was  'a  brand 
plucked  from  the  burning' — that  is,  that  the  people 
whom  he  represented  had  been  brought  unconsumed 
from  the  furnace  of  captivity — is  a  reason  with  God  for 
continuing  to  extend  His  favour,  though  they  have 
sinned.  God's  past  mercies  are  a  motive  with  him. 
Creatural  love  is  limited,  and  too  often  says,  *  I  have 
forgiven  so  often,  that  I  am  wearied,  and  can  do  it  no 
more.'  He  has,  therefore  he  will.  We  often  come  to 
the  end  of  our  longsuffering  a  good  many  times  short 
of  the  four  hundred  and  ninety  a  day  which  Christ 
prescribes.  But  God  never  does.  True,  Joshua  and  his 
people  have  sinned,  and  that  since  their  restoratioD, 


284  ZECHARIAH  [ch.  iii. 

and  Satan  had  a  good  argument  in  pointing  to  these 
transgressions ;  but  God  does  not  say,  '  I  will  put  back 
the  half-burned  brand  in  the  fire  again,  since  the  evil  is 
not  burned  out  of  it,'  but  forgives  again,  because  He  has 
forgiven  before. 

The  sentence  is  followed  by  the  exchange  of  the  filthy 
garments  symbolical  of  sin,  for  the  full  array  of  the 
high  priest.  Ministering  angels  are  dimly  seen  in  the 
background,  and  are  summoned  to  unclothe  and  clothe 
Joshua.  The  Prophet  ventures  to  ask  that  the  sacer- 
dotal attire  should  be  completed  by  the  turban  or 
mitre,  probably  that  headdress  which  bore  the  signi- 
ficant writing  '  Holiness  to  the  Lord,'  expressive  of  the 
destination  of  Israel  and  of  its  ceremonial  cleanness. 
The  meaning  of  this  change  of  clothing  is  given  in 
verse  4:  •!  have  caused  thine  iniquity  to  pass  from 
thee.'  Thus  the  complete  restoration  of  the  pardoned 
and  cleansed  nation  to  its  place  as  a  nation  of  priests 
to  Jehovah  is  symbolised.  To  us  the  gospel  of  forgive- 
ness fills  up  the  outline  in  the  vision ;  and  we  know  how, 
when  sin  testifies  against  us,  we  have  an  Advocate  with 
the  Father,  and  how  the  infinite  love  flows  out  to  us 
notwithstanding  all  sin,  and  how  the  stained  garment 
of  our  souls  can  be  stripped  off,  and  the  *  fine  linen 
clean  and  w^hite,'  the  priestly  dress  on  the  day  of  atone- 
ment, be  put  on  us,  and  we  be  made  priests  unto  God. 

II.  The  remainder  of  the  vision  is  the  address  of  the 
Angel  of  the  Lord  to  Joshua,  developing  the  blessings 
now  made  sure  to  him  and  his  people  by  this  renewed 
consecration  and  cleansing.  First  (verse  7)  is  the  promise 
of  continuance  in  office  and  access  to  God's  presence, 
which,  however,  are  contingent  on  obedience.  The  for- 
given man  must  keep  God's  charge,  if  he  is  to  retain 
his  standing.     On  that  condition,  he  has  '  a  place  of 


vs.  1-10]    A  VISION  OF  JUDGMENT  285 

access  among  those  that  stand  by';  that  is,  the  privi- 
lege of  approach  to  God,  like  the  attendant  angels 
This  promise  may  be  taken  as  surpassing  the  preroga- 
tives hitherto  accorded  to  the  high  priest,  who  had 
only  the  right  of  entrance  into  the  holiest  place  once  a 
year,  but  now  is  promised  the  entree  to  the  heavenly 
court,  as  if  he  were  one  of  the  bright  spirits  who  stand 
there.  They  who  have  access  with  confidence  w^ithin 
the  veil  because  Christ  is  there,  have  more  than  the 
ancient  promise  of  this  vision. 

The  main  point  of  verse  8  is  the  promise  of  the 
Messiah,  but  the  former  part  of  the  verse  is  remark- 
able. Joshua  and  his  fellows  are  summoned  to  listen, 
'for  they  are  men  which  are  a  sign.'  The  meaning 
seems  to  be  that  he  and  his  brethren  who  sat  as  his 
assessors  in  official  functions,  are  collectively  a  sign  or 
embodied  prophecy  of  what  is  to  come.  Their  restora- 
tion to  their  offices  was  a  shadowy  prophecy  of  a  greater 
act  of  forgiving  grace,  which  was  to  be  effected  by  the 
coming  of  the  Messiah. 

The  name  '  Branch '  is  used  here  as  a  proper  name. 
Jeremiah  ( Jer.  xxiii.  5  ;  xxxiii.  15)  had  already  employed 
it  as  a  designation  of  Messiah,  which  he  had  apparently 
learned  from  Isaiah  iv.  2.  The  idea  of  the  word  is  that 
of  the  similar  names  used  by  Isaiah,  *  a  shoot  out  of  the 
stock  of  Jesse,  and  a  Branch  out  of  his  roots '  (Isaiah 
xi.  1),  and  *  a  tender  plant,  and  as  a  root  out  of  a  dry 
ground '  (Isaiah  liii.  2) ;  namely,  that  of  his  origin  from 
the  fallen  house  of  David,  and  the  lowliness  of  his 
appearance. 

The  Messiah  is  again  meant  by  the  '  stone '  in  verse  9. 
Probably  there  was  some  great  stone  taken  from  the 
ruins,  to  which  the  symbol  attaches  itself.  The  founda- 
tion of  the  second  Temple  had  been  laid  years  before 


286  ZECHARIAH  [ch.iii. 

the  prophecy,  but  the  stone  may  still  have  been  visible. 
The  Rabbis  have  much  to  say  about  a  great  stone  which 
had  been  in  the  first  Temple,  and  there  used  for  the  sup- 
port of  the  ark,  but  in  the  second  was  set  in  the  empty 
place  where  the  ark  should  have  been.  Isaiah  had 
prophesied  of  the  '  tried  cornerstone '  laid  in  Zion,  and 
Psalm  cxviii.  22  had  sung  of  the  stone  rejected  and 
made  the  head  of  the  corner.  We  go  in  the  track,  then, 
of  established  usage,  when  we  see  in  this  stone  the 
emblem  of  Messiah,  and  associate  with  it  all  thoughts 
of  firmness,  preciousness,  support,  foundation  of  the 
true  Temple,  basis  of  hope,  ground  of  certitude,  and 
whatever  other  substratum  of  fixity  and  immovable- 
ness  men's  hearts  or  lives  need.  In  all  possible  aspects 
of  the  metaphor,  Jesus  is  the  Foundation. 

And  what  are  the  '  seven  eyes  on  the  stone '  ?  That 
may  simply  be  a  vivid  way  of  saying  that  the  fulness 
of  divine  Providence  would  watch  over  the  Messiah, 
bringing  Him  when  the  time  was  ripe,  and  fitting  Him 
for  His  work.  But  if  we  remember  the  subsequent 
explanation  (iv.  10)  of  the  'seven,' as  'the  eyes  of  the 
Lord  which  run  to  and  fro  through  the  whole  earth,' 
and  connect  this  with  Revelation  v.  6,  we  can  scarcely 
rest  content  with  that  meaning,  but  find  here  the 
deeper  thought  that  the  fulness  of  the  divine  Spirit 
was  given  to  Messiah,  even  as  Isaiah  (xi.  2)  prophesies 
of  the  sevenfold  Spirit. 

•I  will  engrave  the  graving  thereof  is  somewhat 
obscure.  It  seems  to  mean  that  the  seven  eyes  will  be 
cut  on  the  stone,  like  masons'  marks.  If  the  seven  eyes 
are  the  full  energies  of  the  Holy  Spirit,  God's  cutting  of 
them  on  the  stone  is  equivalent  to  His  giving  them  to 
His  Son ;  and  the  fulfilment  of  the  promise  was  when 
He  gave  the  Holy  Spirit  not '  by  measure  unto  Him-' 


vs.  1-10]       THE  RIGHT  OF  ENTRY  287 

The  blessed  purpose  of  Messiah's  coining  and  endow- 
ment with  the  Spirit  is  gloriously  stated  in  the  last 
clause  of  verse  9 :  '  I  will  remove  the  iniquity  of  that 
land  in  one  day.'  Jesus  Christ  has  'once  for  all'  made 
atonement,  as  the  Epistle  to  the  Hebrews  so  often  says. 
The  better  Joshua  by  one  offering  has  taken  away  sin. 
'  The  breadth  of  Thy  land,  O  Immanuel,'  stretched  far 
beyond  the  narrow  bounds  which  Zechariah  knew  for 
Israel's  territory.  It  includes  the  whole  world.  As 
has  been  beautifully  said,  '  That  one  day  is  the  day  of 
Golgotha.' 

The  vision  closes  with  a  picture  of  the  felicity  of 
Messianic  times,  which  recalls  the  description  of  the 
golden  age  of  Solomon,  when  '  Judah  and  Israel  dwelt 
safely,  every  man  under  his  vine  and  under  his  fig-tree ' 
(1  Kings  iv.  25).  In  like  manner  the  nation,  cleansed, 
restored  to  its  priestly  privilege  of  free  access  to  God 
by  the  Messiah  who  comes  with  the  fulness  of  the 
Spirit,  shall  dwell  in  safet\',  and  shall  be  knit  together 
by  friendship,  and  unenvyingly  shall  each  share  his 
good  with  all  others,  recognising  in  every  man  a 
neighbour,  and  gladly  welcoming  him  to  partake  of  all 
the  blessings  which  the  true  Solomon  has  brought  to 
his  house  and  heart. 


THE  RIGHT  OF  ENTRY 

'  I  will  give  thee  places  to  walk  among  these  that  stand  by.'— Zechariah  ill.  7. 

A  WORD  or  two  of  explanation  will  probably  be 
necessary  in  order  to  see  the  full  meaning  of  this 
great  promise.  The  Prophet  has  just  been  describing 
a  vision  of  judgment  which  he  saw,  in  which  the 
high  priest,  as  representative    of    the   nation,  stood 


288  ZECHARIAH  [ch.  iii. 

before  the  Angel  of  the  Lord  as  an  unclean  person. 
He  is  cleansed  and  clothed,  his  foul  raiment  stripped 
off  him,  and  a  fair  priestly  garment,  with  '  Holiness  to 
the  Lord'  written  on  the  front  of  it,  put  upon  him. 
And  then  follow  a  series  of  promises,  of  which  the 
climax  is  the  one  that  I  have  read.  '  I  will  give  thee 
a  place  of  access,'  says  the  Revised  Version,  instead  of 
'places  to  walk';  'I  will  give  thee  a  place  of  access 
among  those  that  stand  by';  the  attendant  angels  are 
dimly  seen  surrounding  their  Lord.  And  so  the 
promise  of  my  text,  in  highly  figurative  fashion,  is 
that  of  free  and  unrestrained  approach  to  God,  of  a 
life  that  is  like  that  of  the  angels  that  stand  before 
His  Face. 

So,  then,  the  words  suggest  to  us,  first,  what  a 
Christian  life  may  be. 

There  are  two  images  blended  together  in  the  great 
words  of  my  text;  the  one  is  that  of  a  king's  court, 
the  other  is  that  of  a  temple.  With  regard  to  the 
former  it  is  a  privilege  given  to  the  highest  nobles  of  a 
kingdom — or  it  was  so  in  old  days — to  have  the  right  of 
entree,  at  all  moments  and  in  all  circumstances,  to  the 
monarch.  With  regard  to  the  latter,  the  prerogative  of 
the  high  priest,  who  was  the  recipient  of  this  promise, 
as  to  access  to  the  Temple,  was  a  very  restricted  one. 
Once  a  year,  with  the  blood  that  prevented  his  annihila- 
tion by  the  brightness  of  the  Presence  into  which  he 
ventured,  he  passed  within  the  veil,  and  stood  before 
that  mysterious  Light  that  coruscated  in  the  darkness 
of  the  Holy  of  Holies.  But  this  High  Priest  is  promised 
an  access  on  all  days  and  at  all  times;  and  that  He 
may  stand  there,  beside  and  like  the  seraphim,  who 
with  one  pair  of  wings  veiled  their  faces  in  token  of 
the  incapacity  of  the  creature  to  behold  the  Creator ; 


V.7]  THE  RIGHT  OF  ENTRY  289 

*  with  twain  veiled  their  feet '  in  token  of  the  unworthi- 
ness  of  creatural  activities  to  be  set  before  Him,  *  and 
with  twain  did  fly'  in  token  of  their  willingness  to 
serve  Him  with  all  their  energies.  This  Priest  passes 
within  the  veil  when  He  will.  Or,  to  put  away  the  two 
metaphors,  and  to  come  to  the  reality  far  greater  than 
either  of  them,  we  can,  whensoever  we  please,  pass  into 
the  presence  before  which  the  splendours  of  an  earthly 
monarch's  court  shrink  into  vulgarity,  and  attain  to  a 
real  reception  of  the  light  that  irradiates  the  true 
Holy  Place,  before  which  that  which  shone  in  the 
earthly  shrine  dwindles  and  darkens  into  a  shadow. 
We  may  live  with  God,  and  in  Him,  and  wrap  a  veil 
and  'privacy  of  glorious  light'  about  us,  whilst  we 
pilgrim  upon  earth,  and  may  have  hidden  lives  which, 
notwithstanding  all  their  surface  occupation  with  the 
distractions  and  duties  and  enjoyments  of  the  present, 
deep  down  in  their  centres  are  knit  to  God.  Our  lives 
may  on  the  outside  thus  be  largely  amongst  the  things 
seen  and  temporal,  and  yet  all  the  while  may  penetrate 
through  these,  and  lay  hold  with  their  true  roots  on 
the  eternal.  If  we  have  any  religious  life  at  all,  the 
measure  in  which  we  possess  it  is  the  measure  in  which 
we  may  ever  more  dwell  in  the  house  of  the  Lord,  and 
have  our  hearts  in  the  secret  place  of  the  Most  High, 
amid  the  stillnesses  and  the  sanctities  of  His  immediate 
dwelling. 

Our  Master  is  the  great  Example  of  this,  of  whom  it 
is  said,  not  only  in  reference  to  His  mysterious  and 
unique  union  of  nature  with  the  Father  in  His  divinity, 
but  in  reference  to  the  humanity  which  He  had  in 
common  with  us  all,  yet  without  sin,  that  the  Son  of 
Man  came  down  from  heaven,  and  even  in  the  act  of 
coming,  and  when  He  had  come,  was  yet  the  Son  of 

T 


290  ZECHARIAH  [0H.111. 

Man  'which  is  in  heaven*  Thus  we,  too,  may  have  'a 
place  of  access  among  them  that  stand  by,'  and  not 
need  to  envy  the  angels  and  the  spirits  of  the  just 
made  perfect,  the  closeness  of  their  communion,  and 
the  vividness  of  their  vision,  for  the  same,  in  its  degree, 
may  be  ours.  We,  too,  can  turn  all  our  desires  into 
petitions,  and  of  every  wish  make  a  prayer.  We,  too, 
can  refer  all  our  needs  to  His  infinite  supply.  We,  too, 
may  consciously  connect  all  our  doings  with  His  will 
and  His  glory  ;  and  for  us  it  is  possible  that  there  shall 
be,  as  if  borne  on  those  electric  wires  that  go  striding 
across  pathless  deserts,  and  carry  their  messages 
through  unpeopled  solitudes,  between  Him  and  us  a 
communication  unbroken  and  continuous,  which,  by  a 
greater  wonder  than  even  that  of  the  telegraph,  shall 
carry  two  messages,  going  opposite  ways  simultane- 
ously, bearing  to  Him  the  swift  aspirations  and 
supplications  of  our  spirits,  and  bringing  to  ua  the 
abundant  answer  of  His  grace.  Such  a  conversation  in 
heaven,  and  such  association  with  the  bands  of  the 
blessed  is  possible  even  for  a  life  upon  earth. 

Secondly,  let  us  consider  this  promise  as  a  pattern 
for  us  of  what  Christian  life  should  be,  and,  alas  I  so 
seldom  is. 

All  privilege  is  duty,  and  everything  that  is  possible 
for  any  Christian  man  to  become,  it  is  imperative  on 
him  to  aim  at.  There  is  no  greater  sin  than  living 
beneath  the  possibilities  of  our  lives,  in  any  region, 
whether  religious  or  other  it  matters  not.  Sin  is  not 
only  going  contrary  to  the  known  law  of  God,  but  also 
a  falling  beneath  a  divine  ideal  which  is  capable  of 
realisation.  And  in  regard  to  our  Christian  life,  if  God 
has  flung  open  His  temple-gates  and  said  to  us,  '  Come 
in,  My  child,  and  dwell  in  the  secret  place  of  the  Most 


V.7]  THE  RIGHT  OF  ENTRY  29l' 

High,  and  abide  there  under  the  shadow  of  the  Almighty, 
finding  protection  and  communion  and  companionship 
in  My  worship,'  there  can  be  nothing  more  insulting  to 
Him,  and  nothing  more  fatally  indicative  of  the  aliena- 
tion of  our  hearts  from  Him,  than  that  we  should  refuse 
to  obey  the  merciful  invitation. 

What  should  we  say  of  a  subject  who  never  presented 
himself  in  the  court  to  which  he  had  the  right  of  free 
entree?  His  absence  would  be  a  mark  of  disloyalty, 
and  would  be  taken  as  a  warning-bell  in  preparation 
for  his  rebellion.  What  should  we  say  of  a  son  or  a 
daughter,  living  in  the  same  city  with  their  parents, 
who  never  crossed  the  threshold  of  the  father's  house, 
but  that  they  had  lost  the  spirit  of  a  child,  and  that 
if  there  was  no  desire  to  be  near  there  could  be  no 
love? 

So,  if  we  will  ask  ourselves, '  How  often  do  I  use  this 
possibility  of  communion  with  God,  which  might 
irradiate  all  my  daily  life  ? '  I  think  we  shall  need  little 
else,  in  the  nature  of  evidence,  that  our  piety  and  our 
religious  experience  are  terribly  stunted  and  dwarfed, 
in  comparison  with  what  they  ought  to  be. 

There  is  an  old  saying,  '  He  that  can  tell  how  often 
he  has  thought  of  God  in  a  day  has  thought  of  Him  too 
seldom.'  I  dare  say  many  of  us  would  have  little 
difficulty  in  counting  on  the  fingers  of  one  hand,  and 
perhaps  not  needing  them  all,  the  number  of  times  in 
which,  to-day,  our  thoughts  have  gone  heavenwards. 
What  we  may  be  is  what  we  ought  to  be,  and  not  to 
use  the  prerogatives  of  our  position  is  the  worst  of 
sins. 

Again,  my  text  suggests  to  us  what  every  Christian 
life  will  hereafter  perfectly  be. 

Some  commentators  take  the  words  of  my  text  to 


292  ZECHARIAH  [ch.  m. 

refer  only  to  the  communion  of  saints  from  the  earth, 
with  the  glorified  angels,  in  and  after  the  Resurrection. 
That  is  a  poor  interpretation,  for  heaven  is  here  to-day. 
But  still  there  is  a  truth  in  the  interpretation  which  we 
need  not  neglect.  Only  let  us  remember  that  nothing — 
so  far  as  Scripture  teaches  us — begins  yonder  except  the 
full  reaping  of  the  fruits  of  what  has  been  sown  here, 
and  that  if  a  man's  feet  have  not  learned  the  path  into 
the  Temple  when  he  was  here  upon  earth,  death  will 
not  be  the  guide  for  him  into  the  Father's  presence. 
All  that  here  has  been  imperfect,  fragmentary,  occa- 
sional, interrupted,  and  marred  in  our  communion  with 
God,  shall  one  day  be  complete.  And  then,  oh !  then, 
who  can  tell  what  undreamed-of  depths  and  sweet- 
nesses of  renewed  communion  and  of  intercourses 
begun,  for  the  first  time  then,  between  'those  that 
stand  by,'  and  have  stood  there  for  ages,  will  then  be 
realised  ? 

'Ye  are  come' — even  here  on  earth — 'to  an  innumer- 
able company  of  angels,  to  the  general  assembly  and 
Church  of  the  first-born,'  but  for  us  all  there  may  be 
the  quiet  hope  that  hereafter  we  shall  '  dwell  in  the 
house  of  the  Lord  for  ever ' ;  and  '  in  solemn  troops  and 
sweet  societies'  shall  learn  what  fellowship,  and 
brotherhood,  and  human  love  may  be. 

Lastly,  notice,  not  from  my  text  but  from  its  context, 
how  any  life  may  become  thus  privileged. 

The  promise  is  preceded  by  a  condition:  'If  thou 
wilt  walk  in  My  ways,  and  if  thou  wilt  keep  My  charge, 
then  ...  I  will  give  thee  access  among  those  that 
stand  by.'  That  is  to  say,  you  cannot  keep  the  con- 
sciousness of  God's  presence,  nor  have  any  blessedness 
of  communion  with  Him,  if  you  are  living  in  dis- 
obedience   of    i5»d    commandments    or    in  neglect  of 


V.  7]  THE  RIGHT  OF  ENTRY  293 

manifest  duty.  A  thin  film  of  vapour  in  our  sky  to- 
night will  hide  the  moon.  Though  the  vapour  itself 
may  be  invisible,  it  will  be  efficacious  as  a  veil.  And 
any  sin,  great  or  small,  fleecy  and  thin,  will  suffice  to 
shut  me  out  from  God.  If  we  are  keeping  His  command- 
ments, then,  and  only  then,  shall  we  have  access  with 
free  hearts  into  His  presence. 

But  to  lay  down  that  condition  seems  the  same  thing 
as  slamming  the  door  in  every  man's  face.  But  let  us 
remember  what  went  before  my  text,  the  experience 
of  the  priest  to  whom  it  was  spoken  in  the  vision.  His 
filthy  garments  were  stripped  off  him,  and  the  pure 
white  robes  worn  on  the  great  Day  of  Atonement,  the 
sacerdotal  dress,  were  put  upon  him.  It  is  the  cleansed 
man  that  has  access  among  '  those  that  stand  by.'  And 
if  you  ask  how  the  cleansing  is  to  be  effected,  take  the 
great  words  of  the  Epistle  to  the  Hebrews  as  an  all- 
sufficient  answer,  coinciding  with,  but  transcending, 
what  this  vision  taught  Zechariah:  'Having,  therefore, 
brethren,  boldness  to  enter  into  the  holiest  of  all,  by 
the  blood  of  Jesus,  .  .  .  and  having  a  High  Priest  over 
the  house  of  God ;  let  us  draw  near  with  a  true  heart, 
in  full  assurance  of  faith,  having  our  hearts  sprinkled 
from  an  evil  conscience.'  Cleansed  by  Christ,  and  with 
Him  for  our  Forerunner,  we  have  boldness  and  '  access 
with  confidence  by  the  faith  of  Him,'  who  proclaims  to 
the  whole  world,  *  No  man  cometh  to  the  Father  but 
by  Me.' 


THE  SOURCE  OF  POWER 

'And  the  Angel  that  talked  with  me  came  again,  and  waked  me,  as  a  man  that  is 
wakened  out  of  his  sleep,  2.  And  said  unto  me.  What  seest  thou?  And  I  said,  I 
have  looked,  and  hehold,  a  candlestick  all  of  gold,  with  a  bowl  upon  the  top  of  it, 
and  his  seven  lamps  thereon,  and  seven  pipes  to  the  seven  lamps  which  are  upon 
the  top  thereof  :  3.  And  two  olive-trees  by  it,  one  upon  the  right  side  of  the  bowl, 
and  the  other  upon  the  left  side  thereof,  i.  So  I  answered  and  spake  to  the  Angel 
that  talked  with  me,  saying.  What  are  these,  my  Lord?  5.  Then  the  Angel  that 
talked  with  me  answered  and  said  unto  me,  Knowest  thou  not  what  these  be! 
And  I  said,  No,  my  Loi-d.  6.  Then  He  answered  and  spake  unto  me,  saying,  This  is 
the  word  of  the  Lord  unto  Zerubbabel,  saying.  Not  by  might,  nor  by  power,  but 
by  My  Spirit,  saith  the  Lord  of  Hosts.  7.  Who  art  thou,  O  great  mountain  ?  before 
Zerubbabel  thou  shalt  become  a  plain :  and  he  shall  bring  forth  the  head-stono 
thereof  with  shoutings,  crying,  Grace,  grace  unto  it.  8.  Moreover,  the  word  of  the 
Lord  came  unto  me,  saying,  9.  The  hands  of  Zerubbabel  have  laid  the  foundation 
of  this  house ;  his  hands  shall  also  finish  it ;  and  thou  shalt  know  that  the  Lord  of 
Hosts  hath  sent  rae  unto  you.  10.  For  who  hath  despised  the  day  of  small  things? 
for  they  shall  rejoice,  and  shall  see  the  plummet  in  the  hand  of  Zerubbabel  with 
those  seven ;  they  are  the  eyes  of  the  Lord,  which  run  to  and  fro  through  the  whole 
earth.'— Zechakiah  iv.  1-10. 

The  preceding  vision  had  reference  to  Joshua  the 
priest,  and  showed  him  restored  to  his  prerogative  of 
entrance  into  the  sanctuary.  This  one  concerns  his 
colleague  Zerubbabel,  the  representative  of  civil  power, 
as  he  of  ecclesiastical,  and  promises  that  he  shall 
succeed  in  rebuilding  the  Temple.  The  supposition  is 
natural  that  the  actual  work  of  reconstruction  was 
mainly  in  the  hands  of  the  secular  ruler. 

Flesh  is  weak,  and  the  Prophet  had  fallen  into  deep 
sleep,  after  the  tension  of  the  previous  vision.  That 
had  been  shown  him  by  Jehovah,  but  in  this  vision  we 
have  the  same  angel  interpreter  who  had  spoken  with 
Zechariah  before.  He  does  not  bring  the  vision,  but 
simply  wakes  the  Prophet  that  he  may  see  it,  and 
directs  his  attention  to  it  by  the  question, '  What  seest 
thou  ? '  The  best  way  to  teach  is  to  make  the  learner 
put  his  conceptions  into  definite  words.  We  see  things 
more  clearly,  and  they  make  a  deeper  impression, 
when  we  tell  what  we  see.    How  many  lazy  looks  we 

2M 


vs.  1-10]  THE  SOURCE  OF  POWER  295 

give  at  things  temporal  as  well  as  at  things  eternal, 
after  which  we  should  be  unable  to  answer  the  Angel's 
question !  It  is  not  every  one  who  sees  what  he 
looks  at. 

The  passage  has  two  parts — the  vision  and  its  in- 
terpretation, with  related  promises. 

The  vision  may  be  briefly  disposed  of.  Its  original  is 
the  great  lamp  which  stood  in  the  tabernacle,  and  was 
replaced  in  the  Solomonic  Temple  by  ten  smaller  ones. 
These  had  been  carried  away  at  the  Captivity,  and  we 
do  not  read  of  their  restoration.  But  the  main  thing 
to  note  is  the  differences  between  this  lamp  and  the 
one  in  the  tabernacle.  The  description  here  confines 
itself  to  these  :  They  are  three — the  '  bowl'  or  reservoir 
above  the  lamp,  the  pipes  from  it  to  the  seven  lights, 
and  the  two  olive-trees  which  stood  on  either  side  of 
the  lamp  and  replenished  from  their  branches  the 
supply  in  the  reservoir.  The  tabernacle  lamp  had  no 
reservoir,  and  consequently  no  pipes,  but  was  fed  with 
oil  by  the  priests.  The  meaning  of  the  variations, 
then,  is  plain.  They  were  intended  to  express  the 
fuller  and  more  immediately  divine  supply  of  oil.  If 
the  Revised  Version's  rendering  of  the  somewhat 
doubtful  numerals  in  verse  2  be  accepted,  each  several 
light  had  seven  pipes,  thus  expressing  the  perfection 
of  its  supplies. 

Now,  there  can  be  no  doubt  about  the  symbolism  of 
the  tabernacle  lamp.  It  represented  the  true  office  of 
Israel,  as  it  rayed  out  its  beams  into  the  darkness  of 
the  desert.  It  meant  the  same  thing  as  Christ's  words, 
« Ye  are  the  light  of  the  world,'  and  as  the  vision  of  the 
seven  golden  candlesticks,  in  Revelation  i.  12,  13,  20. 
The  substitution  of  separate  lamps  for  one  with  seven 
lights    may  teach  the  difference    between    the    mere 


296  ZECHARI AH  [ch.  it. 

formal  unity  of  the  people  of  God  in  the  Old  Testament 
and  the  true  oneness,  conjoined  with  diversity,  in  the 
New  Testament  Church,  which  is  one  because  Christ 
walks  in  the  midst.  Zechariah's  lamp,  then,  called  to 
the  minds  of  the  little  band  of  restored  exiles  their 
high  vocation,  and  the  changed  arrangements  for  the 
supply  of  that  oil,  which  is  the  standing  emblem  for 
divine  communications  fitting  for  service,  or,  to  keep 
to  the  metaphor,  fitting  to  shine,  signified  the  abun- 
dance of  these. 

The  explanation  of  the  vision  is  introduced,  as  at 
Zechariah  i.  9,  19,  by  the  Prophet's  question  of  its 
meaning.  His  angelic  teacher  is  astonished  at  his 
dullness,  as  indeed  heavenly  eyes  must  often  be  at  ours, 
and  asks  if  he  does  not  know  so  familiar  an  object. 
The  Prophet's  'No,  my  Lord,'  brings  full  explanation. 
Ingenuously  acknowledged  ignorance  never  asks  Heaven 
for  enlightenment  in  vain. 

First,  the  true  source  of  strength  and  success,  as 
shown  by  the  vision,  is  declared  in  plain  terms.  What 
fed  the  lamp  ?  Oil,  which  symbolises  the  gift  of  a 
divine  Spirit,  if  not  in  the  full  personal  sense  as  in 
the  New  Testament,  yet  certainly  as  a  God-breathed 
influence,  preparing  prophets,  priests,  kings,  and  even 
artificers,  for  their  several  forms  of  service.  Whence 
came  the  oil?  From  the  two  olive-trees,  which  though, 
as  verse  14  shows,  they  represented  the  two  leaders, 
yet  set  forth  the  truth  that  their  power  for  their 
work  was  from  God ;  for  the  Bible  knows  nothing  of 
'  nature '  as  a  substitute  for  or  antithesis  to  God,  and 
the  growth  of  the  olive  and  its  yield  of  oil  is  Ilis  doing. 

This,  then,  was  the  message  for  Zerubbabel  and  his 
people,  that  God  would  give  such  gifts  as  thej'  needed, 
in  order  that  the  light  which  He  Himself  had  kindled 


vs.  1-10]   THE  SOURCE  OF  POWER  297 

should  not  be  quenched.  If  the  lamp  was  fed  with 
oil,  it  would  burn,  and  there  would  be  a  Temple  for  it 
to  stand  in.  If  we  try  to  imagine  the  feebleness  of  the 
handful  of  discouraged  men,  and  the  ring  of  enemies 
round  them,  we  may  feel  the  sweetness  of  the  promise 
which  bade  them  not  despond  because  they  had  little 
of  what  the  word  calls  might. 

We  all  need  the  lesson ;  for  the  blustering  world  is 
apt  to  make  us  forget  the  true  source  of  all  real 
strength  for  holy  service  or  for  noble  living.  The 
world's  power  at  its  mightiest  is  weak,  and  the  Church's 
true  power,  at  her  feeblest,  is  omnipotent,  if  only  she 
grasps  the  strength  which  is  hers,  and  takes  the  Spirit 
which  is  given.  The  eternal  antithesis  of  man's  weak- 
ness at  his  haughtiest,  and  God's  strength  even  in  its 
feeblest  possessors,  is  taught  by  that  lamp  flaming, 
whatever  envious  hands  or  howling  storms  might  seek 
to  quench  it,  because  fed  by  oil  from  on  high.  Let  us 
keep  to  God's  strength,  and  not  corrupt  His  oil  with 
mixtures  of  foul-smelling  stuff  of  our  own  compounding. 

Next,  in  the  strength  of  that  revelation  of  the  source 
of  might  a  defiant  challenge  is  blown  to  the  foe.  The 
'  great  mountain '  is  primarily  the  frowning  difficulties 
which  lifted  themselves  against  Zerubbabel's  enter- 
prise, and  more  widely  the  whole  mass  of  worldly 
opposition  encountered  by  God's  servants  in  every  age. 
It  seems  to  bar  all  advance;  but  an  unseen  Hand 
crushes  it  down,  and  flattens  it  out  into  a  level,  on 
which  progress  is  easy.  The  Hebrew  gives  the  sud- 
denness and  completeness  of  the  transformation  with 
great  force ;  for  the  whole  clause,  *  Thou  shalt  become 
a  plain,'  is  one  word  in  the  original. 

Such  triumphant  rising  above  difficulties  is  not  pre- 
sumption when  it  has  been  preceded  by  believing  gaze 


298  ZECHARIAH  [ch.  iv. 

on  the  source  of  strength.  If  we  have  taken  to  heart 
the  former  words  of  the  Prophet,  we  shall  not  be  in 
danger  of  rash  overconfidence  when  we  calmly  front 
obstacles  in  the  path  of  duty,  assured  that  every 
mountain  shall  be  made  low.  A  brave  scorn  of  the 
world,  both  in  its  sweetnesses  and  its  terrors,  befits 
God's  men,  and  is  apt  to  fulfil  its  own  confidences ;  for 
most  of  these  terrors  are  like  ghosts,  who  will  not 
wait  to  be  spoken  to,  but  melt  away  if  fairly  faced. 
Nor  should  we  forget  the  other  side  of  this  thought; 
namely,  that  it  is  the  constant  drift  of  Providence  to 
abase  the  lofty  in  mind,  and  to  raise  the  lowly.  What 
is  high  is  sure  to  get  many  knocks  which  pass  over 
lower  heads.  To  men  of  faith  every  mountain  shall 
either  become  a  plain  or  be  cast  into  the  sea. 

Then  follows,  on  the  double  revelation  of  the  source 
of  strength  and  the  futility  of  opposition,  the  assurance 
of  the  successful  completion  of  the  work.  The  stone 
which  is  to  crown  the  structure  shall  be  brought  forth 
and  set  in  its  place  amid  jubilant  prayers  not  offered 
in  vain,  that  *  grace ' — that  is,  the  protecting  favour  of 
God — may  rest  on  it. 

The  same  thought  is  reiterated  and  enlarged  in  the 
next  'word,'  which  is  somewhat  separated  from  the 
former,  as  if  the  flow  of  prophetic  communication  had 
paused  for  a  moment,  and  then  been  resumed.  In 
verse  9  we  have  the  assurance,  so  seldom  granted  to 
God's  workers,  that  Zerubbabel  shall  be  permitted  to 
complete  the  task  which  he  had  begun.  It  is  the  fate 
of  most  of  us  to  inherit  unfinished  work  from  our 
predecessors,  and  to  bequeath  the  like  to  our  successors. 
And  in  one  aspect,  all  human  work  is  unfinished,  as 
being  but  a  fragment  of  the  fulfilment  of  the  mighty 
purpose  which  runs  through  all  the  ages.    Yet  some 


vs.  1-10]   THE  SOURCE  OF  POWER  299 

are  more  happy  than  others,  in  that  they  see  an  approxi- 
mate completion  of  their  work.  But  whether  it  be 
so  or  not,  our  task  is  to  '  do  the  little  we  can  do,  and 
leave  the  rest  with  God,'  sure  that  He  will  work  all  the 
fragments  into  a  perfect  whole,  and  content  to  do  the 
smallest  bit  of  service  for  Him.  Few  of  us  are  strong 
enough  to  do  separate  building.  We  are  like  coral 
insects,  whose  reef  is  one,  though  its  makers  are 
millions. 

Zerubbabel  finished  his  task,  but  its  end  was  but  a 
new  beginning  of  an  order  of  things  of  which  he  did 
not  see  the  end.  There  are  no  beginnings  or  endings, 
f)roperly  speaking,  in  human  affairs,  but  all  is  one 
unbroken  flow.  One  man  only  has  made  a  real  new 
beginning,  and  that  is  Jesus  Christ ;  and  He  only  will 
really  carry  His  work  to  its  very  last  issues.  He  is 
Alpha  and  Omega,  the  beginning  and  the  ending.  He 
is  the  Foundation  of  the  true  Temple,  and  He  is  also 
the  Headstone  of  the  corner,  the  foundation  on  which 
all  rests,  the  apex  to  which  all  runs  up.  '  When  He 
begins,  He  will  also  make  an  end.' 

The  completion  of  the  work  is  to  be  the  token  that 
the  '  angel  who  spake  with  me '  was  God's  messenger. 
We  can  know  that  before  the  fulfilment,  but  we  cannot 
but  know  it  after.  Better  to  be  sure  that  the  message 
is  from  God  while  yet  the  certainty  is  the  result  of 
faith,  than  to  be  sure  of  it  afterwards,  when  the  issue 
has  shattered  and  shamed  our  doubts. 

If  we  realise  that  God's  Spirit  is  the  guarantee  for 
the  success  of  work  done  for  God,  we  shall  escape  the 
vulgar  error  of  measuring  the  importance  of  things  by 
their  size,  as,  no  doubt,  many  of  these  builders  were 
doing.  No  one  will  help  on  the  day  of  great  things 
who  despises  that  of  small  ones.    They  say  that  the 


300  ZECHARIAH  [ch.  iv. 

seeds  of  the  *  big  trees '  in  California  are  the  smallest 
of  all  the  conifers.  I  do  not  vouch  for  the  truth  of  the 
statement,  but  God's  work  always  begins  with  little 
seeds,  as  the  history  of  the  Church  and  of  every  good 
cause  shows.  'What  do  these  feeble  Jews?'  sneered 
the  spectators  of  their  poor  little  walls,  painfully  piled 
up,  over  which  a  fox  could  jump.  They  did  very  little, 
but  they  were  building  the  city  of  God,  which  has 
outlasted  all  the  mockers. 

Men  might  look  with  contempt  on  the  humble  begin- 
ning, but  other  eyes  than  theirs  looked  at  it  with 
other  emotions.  The  eyes  which  in  the  last  vision 
were  spoken  of  as  directed  on  the  foundation  stone, 
gaze  on  the  work  with  joy.  These  are  the  seven  eyes 
of  'the  Lord,'  which  are  'the  seven  Spirits  of  God, 
sent  forth  into  all  the  earth'  (Rev.  v.  6).  The 
Spirit  is  here  contemplated  in  the  manifoldness  of  His 
operations  rather  than  in  the  unity  of  His  person. 
Thus  the  closing  assurance,  which  involves  the  success 
of  the  work,  since  God's  eyes  rest  on  it  with  delight, 
comes  round  to  the  first  declaration,  'Not  by  might,  not 
by  power,  but  by  My  Spirit.'  Note  the  strong  contrast 
between  'despise'  and  'rejoice.'  What  matter  the 
scoffs  of  mockers,  if  God  approves?  What  are  they 
but  fools  who  look  at  that  which  moves  His  joy,  and 
find  in  it  only  food  for  scorn?  What  will  become  of 
their  laughter  at  last  ?  If  we  try  to  get  so  near  God 
as  to  see  things  with  His  eyes,  we  shall  be  saved  from 
many  a  false  estimate  of  what  is  great  and  what  is 
small,  and  may  have  our  own  poor  little  doings  invested 
with  strange  dignity,  because  He  deigns  to  behold  and 
bless  them. 


THE  FOUNDER  AND  FINISHER  OF  THE 
TEMPLE 

'  The  hands  of  Zerubbabel  have  laid  the  foundation  of  this  house ;  his  hands 
shall  also  finish  it.'— Zechabiah  It.  9. 

I  AM  afraid  that  Zerubbabel  is  very  little  more  than 
a  grotesque  name  to  most  Bible-readers,  so  I  may  be 
allowed  a  word  of  explanation  as  to  him  and  as  to 
the  original  force  of  my  text.  He  was  a  prince  of  the 
blood  royal  of  Israel,  and  the  civil  leader  of  the  first 
detachment  of  returning  exiles.  With  Joshua,  the 
high  priest,  he  came,  at  the  head  of  a  little  company, 
to  Palestine,  and  there  pathetically  attempted,  with 
small  resources,  to  build  up  some  humble  house  that 
might  represent  the  vanished  glories  of  Solomon's 
Temple.  Political  enmity  on  the  part  of  the  surround- 
ing tribes  stopped  the  work  for  nearly  twenty  years. 
During  all  that  time,  the  hole  in  the  ground,  where  the 
foundations  had  been  dug  and  a  few  courses  of  stones 
been  laid,  gaped  desolate,  a  sad  reminder  to  the  feeble 
band  of  the  failure  of  their  hopes.  But  with  the  acces- 
sion of  a  new  Persian  king,  new  energy  sprang  up,  and 
new,  favourable  circumstances  developed  themselves. 
The  Prophet  Zechariah  came  to  the  front,  although  quite 
a  young  man,  and  became  the  mainspring  of  the  renewed 
activity  in  building  the  Temple.  The  words  of  my  text 
are,  of  course,  in  their  plain,  original  meaning,  the  pro- 
phetic assurance  that  the  man,  grown  an  old  man  by 
this  time,  who  had  been  honoured  to  take  the  first 
spadeful  of  soil  out  of  the  earth  should  be  the  man  '  to 
bring  forth  the  headstone  with  shoutings  of  Grace, 
grace  unto  it  I ' 
But  whilst  that  is  the  original  application,  and  whilst 

901 


302  ZECHARIAH  [ch.  iv. 

the  words  open  to  us  a  little  door  into  long  years  of 
constrained  suspension  of  work  and  discouraged  hope, 
I  think  we  shall  not  be  wrong  if  we  recognise  in  them 
something  deeper  than  a  reference  to  the  Prince  of 
David's  line,  concerning  whom  they  were  originally 
spoken.  I  take  them  to  be,  in  the  true  sense  of  the 
term,  a  Messianic  prophecy ;  and  I  take  it  that,  just 
because  Zerubbabel,  a  member  of  that  royal  house 
from  which  the  Messiah  was  to  come,  was  the  builder 
of  the  Temple,  he  was  a  prophetic  person.  What  was 
true  about  him  primarily  is  thereby  shown  to  have  a 
bearing  upon  the  greater  Son  of  David  who  was  to 
come  thereafter,  and  who  was  to  build  the  Temple  of 
the  Lord.  In  that  aspect  I  desire  to  look  at  the  words 
now :  *  His  hands  have  laid  the  foundation  of  the 
house,  and  His  hands  shall  also  finish  it.' 

I.  There  is,  then,  here  a  large  truth  as  to  Christ,  the 
true  Temple-builder. 

It  is  the  same  blessed  message  which  was  given  from 
His  own  lips  long  centuries  after,  when  He  spoke  from 
heaven  to  John  in  Patmos,  and  said,  'I  am  Alpha 
and  Omega,  the  First  and  the  Last.'  The  first  letter 
of  the  Greek  alphabet,  and  the  last  letter  of  the  Greek 
alphabet,  and  all  the  letters  that  lie  between,  and  all 
the  words  that  you  can  make  out  of  the  letters — they 
are  all  from  Him,  and  He  underlies  everything. 

Now  that  is  true  about  creation,  in  the  broadest  and 
in  the  most  absolute  sense.  For  what  does  the  New 
Testament  say,  with  the  consenting  voice  of  all  its 
writers?  'In  the  beginning  was  the  Word,  and  the 
Word  was  with  God,  and  the  Word  was  God.  Without 
Him  was  not  anything  made  that  was  made.'  His 
hands  laid  the  foundations  of  this  great  house  of  the 
universe,  with  its  'many  mansions.'     And  what  says 


V.  9]    THE  FOUNDER  AND  FINISHER    803 

Paul?  *He  is  the  Beginning,  in  Him  all  things 
consist '  .  .  .  '  that  in  all  things  He  might  have  the  pre- 
eminence.' And  what  says  He  Himself  from  heaven  ? 
*  I  am  the  First  and  the  Last.'  So,  in  regard  to  every- 
thing in  the  universe,  Christ  is  its  origin,  and  Christ 
is  its  goal  and  its  end.  He  'has  laid  the  foundation, 
and  His  hands  shall  also  finish  it.' 

But,  further,  we  turn  to  the  application  which  is  the 
more  usual  one,  and  say  that  He  is  the  Beginner  and 
Finisher  of  the  work  of  redemption,  which  is  His  only 
from  its  inception  to  its  accomplishment,  from  the  first 
breaking  of  the  ground  for  the  foundations  of  the 
Temple  to  the  triumphant  bringing  forth  of  the  last 
stone  that  crowns  the  corner  and  gleams  on  the  top- 
most pinnacle  of  the  completed  structure.  There  is 
nothing  about  Jesus  Christ,  as  it  seems  to  me,  more 
manifest,  unless  our  eyes  are  blinded  by  prejudice, 
than  that  the  Carpenter  of  Nazareth,  who  grew  up 
amidst  the  ordinary  conditions  of  infant  manhood, 
was  trained  as  other  Jewish  children,  increased  in 
wisdom,  spoke  a  language  that  had  been  moulded  by 
man,  and  inherited  His  nation's  mental  and  spiritual 
equipment,  yet  stands  forth  on  the  pages  of  these  four 
Gospels  as  a  perfectly  original  man,  to  put  it  on  the 
lowest  ground,  and  as  owing  nothing  to  any  prede- 
cessor, and  not  as  merely  one  in  a  series,  or  naturally 
accounted  for  by  reference  to  His  epoch  or  conditions. 
He  makes  a  new  beginning;  He  presents  a  perfectly 
fresh  thing  in  the  history  of  human  nature.  Just  as 
His  coming  was  the  introduction  into  the  heart  of 
humanity  of  a  new  type,  the  second  Adam,  the  Lord 
from  heaven,  so  the  work  that  He  does  is  all  His  own. 
He  does  it  all  Himself,  for  all  that  His  servants  do  in 
carrying  out  the  purposes  dear  to  His  heart  is  done  by 


304  ZECHARIAH  [oh.  iv. 

His  working  in  and  through  them,  and  though  we  are 
fellow-labourers  with  Him,  His  hands  alone  lay  every 
stone  of  the  Temple. 

Not  only  docs  my  text,  in  its  highest  application, 
point  to  Jesus  Christ  as  the  Author  of  redemption  from 
its  very  beginning,  but  it  also  declares  that  all  through 
the  ages  His  hand  is  at  work.  'Shall  also  finish  it' — 
then  He  is  labouring  at  it  now ;  and  we  have  not  to 
think  of  a  Christ  who  once  worked,  and  has  left  to  us 
the  task  of  developing  the  consequences  of  His  com- 
pleted activity,  but  of  a  Christ  who  is  working  on  and 
on,  steadily  and  persistently.  The  builders  of  some 
great  edifice,  whilst  they  are  laying  its  lower  courses, 
are  down  upon  our  level,  and  as  the  building  rises  the 
scaffolding  rises,  and  sometimes  the  platform  where 
they  stand  is  screened  off  by  some  frail  canvas 
stretched  round  it,  so  that  we  cannot  see  them  as 
they  ply  their  work  with  trowel  and  mortar.  So 
Christ  Came  down  to  earth  to  lay  the  courses  of  His 
Temple  that  had  to  rest  upon  earth,  but  now  the 
scaffolding  is  raised  and  He  is  working  at  the  top 
stories.  Though  out  of  our  sight.  He  is  at  work  as 
truly  and  energetically  as  He  was  when  He  was 
down  here.  You  remember  how  strikingly  one  of 
the  Evangelists  puts  that  thought  in  the  last  words 
of  his  Gospel — if,  indeed,  they  are  his  words.  '  He  was 
received  up  into  heaven,  and  sat  at  the  right  hand  of 
God,  and  they  went  everywhere,  preaching  the  word.' 
Well,  that  looks  as  if  there  were  a  sad  separation 
between  the  Commander  and  the  soldiers  that  He 
had  ordered  to  the  front,  as  if  He  were  sitting  at  ease 
on  a  hill  overlooking  the  battle-field  from  a  safe 
distance  and  sending  His  men  to  death.  But  the  next 
words  bring  Him  and  them  together — '  The  Lord  also 


V.9]    THE  FOUNDER  AND  FINISHER    805 

working  with  them,  and  confirming  the  word  with 
signs  following.'  And  so,  brethren,  a  work  begun, 
continued,  and  ended  by  the  same  immortal  Hand,  is 
the  work  on  which  the  redemption  of  the  world 
depends. 

II.  Notice,  secondly,  that  we  have  here  the  assurance 
of  the  triumph  of  the  Gospel. 

No  doubt,  in  the  long-forgotten  days  in  which  my 
text  was  spoken,  there  were  plenty  of  over-prudent 
calculators  in  the  little  band  of  exiles  who  said, '  What 
is  the  use  of  our  trying  to  build  in  face  of  all  this 
opposition  and  with  these  poor  resources  of  ours?' 
They  would  throw  cold  water  enough  on  the  works 
of  Zerubbabel,  and  on  Zechariah  who  inspired  them. 
But  there  came  the  great  word  of  promise  to  them, 
'He  shall  bring  forth  the  headstone  with  shoutings.' 
The  text  is  the  cure  for  all  such  calculations  by  us 
Christian  people,  and  by  others  than  Christian  people. 
When  we  begin  to  count  up  resources,  and  to  measure 
these  against  the  work  to  be  done,  there  is  little  wonder 
if  good  men  and  bad  men  sometimes  concur  in  thinking 
that  the  Gospel  of  Jesus  Christ  has  very  little  chance 
of  conquering  the  world.  And  that  is  perfectly  true, 
unless  you  take  Him  into  the  calculation,  and  then  the 
probabilities  look  altogether  different.  We  are  but  like 
a  long  row  of  ciphers,  but  put  one  significant  figure 
in  front  of  the  row  of  ciphers  and  it  comes  to  be 
of  value.  And  so,  if  you  are  calculating  the  proba- 
bilities of  the  success  of  Christianity  in  the  world  and 
forget  to  start  with  Christ,  you  have  left  out  the 
principal  factor  in  the  problem.  Churches  lose  their 
fervour,  their  members  die  and  pass  away.  He  renews 
and  purifies  the  corrupted  Church,  and  He  liveth  for 
ever.    Therefore,  because  we  may  say,  with  calm  con- 

u 


306  ZECHARIAH  [ch.iv. 

fidence,  'His  hands  have  laid  the  foundation  of  the 
house,  and  His  hands  are  at  work  on  all  the  courses 
of  it  as  it  rises,'  we  may  be  perfectly  sure  that  the 
Temple  which  He  founded,  at  which  He  still  toils,  shall 
be  completed,  and  not  stand  a  gaunt  ruin,  looking  on 
which  passers-by  will  mockingly  say,  '  This  man  began 
to  build  and  was  not  able  to  finish.'  When  Brennus 
conquered  Rome,  and  the  gold  for  the  city's  ransom 
was  being  weighed,  he  clashed  his  sword  into  the  scale 
to  outweigh  the  gold.  Christ's  sword  is  in  the  scale, 
and  it  weighs  more  than  the  antagonism  of  the  world 
and  the  active  hostility  of  hell.  '  His  hands  have  laid 
the  foundation  ;  His  hands  shall  also  finish  it.' 

III.  Still  further,  here  is  encouragement  for  despon- 
dent and  timid  Christians. 

Jesus  Christ  is  not  going  to  leave  you  half  way  across 
the  bog.  That  is  not  His  manner  of  guiding  us.  He 
began;  He  will  finish.  Remember  the  words  of  Paul 
which  catch  up  this  same  thought:  'Being  confident 
of  this  very  thing,  that  He  which  hath  begun  a  good 
work  in  you  will  perfect  the  same  until  the  day  of 
Jesus  Christ.'  Brethren !  if  the  seed  of  the  kingdom 
is  in  our  hearts,  though  it  be  but  as  a  grain  of  mustard 
seed,  be  sure  of  this,  that  He  will  watch  over  it  and 
bless  the  springing  thereof.  So,  although  when  we 
think  of  ourselves,  our  own  slowness  of  progress,  our 
own  feeble  resolutions,  our  own  wayward  hearts,  our 
own  vacillating  wills,  our  many  temptations,  our  many 
corruptions,  our  many  follies,  we  may  well  say  to 
ourselves,  'Will  there  ever  be  any  greater  complete- 
ness in  this  terribly  imperfect  Christian  character  of 
mine  than  there  is  to-day?'  let  us  be  of  good  cheer,  and 
not  think  only  of  ourselves,  but  much  rather  of  Him 
who  works  on  and  in  and  for  us.    If  we  lift  up  our 


v,9]    THE  FOUNDER  AND  FINISHER    307 

hearts  to  Him,  and  keep  ourselves  near  Him,  and  let 
Him  work,  He  will  work.  If  we  do  not — like  the  demons 
in  the  old  monastic  stories,  who  every  night  pulled 
dov/n  the  bit  of  walling  that  the  monks  had  in  the 
daytime  built  for  their  new  monastery — by  our  own 
hands  pull  down  what  He,  by  His  hand,  has  built  up, 
the  structure  will  rise,  and  we  shall  be  'builded  together 
for  a  habitation  of  God  through  the  Spirit.'  Be  of  good 
cheer,  only  keep  near  the  Master,  and  let  Him  do  what 
He  desires  to  do  for  us  all.  God  is  '  faithful  who  hath 
called  us  to  the  fellowship  of  His  Son,'  and  He  also  will 
do  it. 

IV.  Lastly,  here  is  a  striking  contrast  to  the  fate 
which  attends  all  human  workers. 

There  are  very  few  of  us  who  even  partially  seem  to 
be  happy  enough  to  begin  and  finish  any  task,  beyond 
the  small  ones  of  our  daily  life.  Authors  die,  with  books 
half  finished,  with  sentences  half  finished  sometimes, 
where  the  pen  has  been  laid  down.  No  man  starts  an 
entirely  fresh  line  of  action ;  he  inherits  much  from  his 
past.  No  man  completes  a  great  work  that  he  under- 
takes ;  he  leaves  it  half -finished,  and  coming  genera- 
tions, if  it  is  one  of  the  great  historical  works  of  the 
world,  work  out  its  consequences  for  good  or  for  evil. 
The  originator  has  to  be  contented  with  setting  the 
thing  going  and  handing  on  unfinished  tasks  to  his 
successors.  That  is  the  condition  under  which  we  live. 
We  have  to  be  contented  to  do  our  little  bit  of  work, 
that  will  fit  in  along  with  that  of  a  great  many  others, 
like  a  chain  of  men  who  stand  between  a  river  and  a 
burning  house,  and  pass  the  buckets  from  end  to  end. 
How  many  hands  does  it  take  to  make  a  pin  ?  How 
many  did  it  take  to  make  the  cloth  of  our  dress  ?  The 
shepherd  out  in  Australia,  the  packer  in  Melbourne,  the 


308  ZECHARIAH  [ch.  iv. 

sailors  on  the  ship  that  brought  the  wool  home,  the 
railwaymeu  that  took  it  to  Bradford,  the  spinner,  the 
weaver,  the  dyer,  the  finisher,  the  tailor — they  all  had 
a  hand  in  it,  and  the  share  of  none  of  them  was  fit  to 
stand  upright  by  itself,  as  it  were,  without  something 
on  either  side  of  it  to  hold  it  up. 

So  it  is  in  all  our  work  in  the  world,  and  eminently 
in  our  Christian  work.  We  have  to  be  contented  with 
being  parts  of  a  mighty  whole,  to  do  our  small  piece  of 
service,  and  not  to  mind  though  it  cannot  be  singled 
out  in  the  completed  whole.  What  does  that  matter, 
as  long  as  it  is  there?  The  waters  of  the  brook  are  lost 
in  the  river,  and  it,  in  turn,  in  the  sea.  But  each  drop 
is  there,  though  indistinguishable. 

Multiplication  of  joy  comes  from  division  of  labour. 
'  One  soweth  and  another  reapeth,'  and  the  result  is 
that  there  are  two  to  be  glad  over  the  harvest  instead 
of  one — '  that  he  that  soweth  and  he  that  reapeth  may 
rejoice  together.'  So  it  is  a  good  thing  that  the  hands 
that  laid  the  foundations  so  seldom  are  the  hands  that 
finish  the  work ;  for  thereby  there  are  more  admitted 
into  the  social  gladness  of  the  completed  results.  The 
navvy  that  lifted  the  first  spadeful  of  earth  in  excavat- 
ing for  the  railway  line,  and  the  driver  of  the  loco- 
motive over  the  completed  track,  are  partners  in  the 
success  and  in  the  joy.  The  forgotten  bishop  who,  I 
know  not  how  many  centuries  ago,  laid  the  foundations 
of  Cologne  Cathedral,  and  the  workmen  who,  a  few 
years  since,  took  down  the  old  crane  that  had  stood  for 
long  years  on  the  sj)ire,  and  completed  it  to  the  slender 
apex,  were  partners  in  one  work  that  reached  through 
the  ages. 

So  let  us  do  our  little  bit  of  work,  and  remember  that 
whilst  we  do  it,  He  for  whom  we  are  doing  it  is  doing 


V.9]     THE  PRIEST  OF  THE  WORLD      809 

it  in  us,  and  let  us  rejoice  to  know  that  at  the  last  we 
shall  share  in  the  '  joy  of  our  Lord,'  when  He  sees  of 
the  travail  of  His  soul  and  is  satisfied.  Though  He 
builds  all  Himself,  yet  He  will  let  us  have  the  joy  of 
feeling  that  we  are  labourers  together  with  Him.  '  Ye 
are  God's  building';  but  the  Builder  permits  us  to 
share  in  His  task  and  in  His  triumph. 


THE  PRIEST  OF  THE  WORLD  AND 
KING  OF  MEN 

'  He  shall  build  the  Temple  of  the  Lord  .  .  .  and  He  shall  be  a  Priest  upon  His 
throne.'— Zechakiah  vi.  13. 

A  HANDFUL  of  feeble  exiles  had  come  back  from  their 
Captivity.  '  The  holy  and  beautiful  house '  where  their 
fathers  praised  Him  was  burned  with  fire.  There  was 
no  king  among  them,  but  they  still  possessed  a  repre- 
sentative of  the  priesthood,  the  other  great  office  of 
divine  appointment.  Their  first  care  was  to  rear  some 
poor  copy  of  the  Temple ;  and  the  usual  difficulties  that 
attend  reconstruction  of  any  sort,  and  dog  every  move- 
ment that  rests  upon  religious  enthusiasm,  beset  them 
— strong  enemies,  and  half-hearted  friends,  and  per- 
sonal jealousies  weakening  still  more  their  weak  forces. 
In  this  time  of  anarchy,  of  toil  at  a  great  task  with 
inadequate  resources,  of  despondency  that  was  rapidly 
fulfilling  its  own  forebodings,  the  Prophet,  v^ho  was  the 
spring  of  the  whole  movement,  receives  a  word  in  season 
from  the  Lord.  He  is  bidden  to  take  from  some  of  the 
returned  exiles  the  tribute-money  which  they  had 
brought,  and  having  made  of  it  golden  and  silver 
crowns — the  sign  of  kingship — to  set  them  on  the  high 
priest's  head,  thus  uniting   the  sacerdotal  and  regal 


810  ZECHARI  AH  [ch.  vi. 

offices,  which  had  always  been  jealously  separated  in 
Israel.  This  singular  action  is  explained,  by  the  words 
which  he  is  commanded  to  speak,  as  being  a  symbolic 
prophecy  of  Him  who  is  '  the  Branch ' — the  well-known 
name  which  older  prophets  had  used  for  the  Messiah — 
indicating  that  in  Him  were  the  reality  which  the  priest- 
hood shadowed,  and  the  rule  which  was  partly  dele- 
gated to  Israel's  king  as  well  as  the  power  which  should 
rear  the  true  temple  of  God  among  men. 

It  is  in  accordance  with  the  law  of  prophetic  develop- 
ment from  the  beginning,  that  the  external  circum- 
stances of  the  nation  at  the  moment  should  supply  the 
mould  into  which  the  promise  is  run.  The  earliest  of 
all  Messianic  predictions  embraced  only  the  existence 
of  evil,  as  represented  by  the  serpent,  and  the  conquest 
of  it  by  one  who  was  known  but  as  a  son  of  Eve.  When 
the  history  reaches  the  patriarchal  stage,  wherein  the 
family,  is  the  predominant  conception,  the  prophecy 
proportionately  advances  to  the  assurance,  'In  thy 
seed  shall  all  the  families  of  the  earth  be  blessed.' 
When  the  mission  of  Moses  had  made  the  people  familiar 
with  the  idea  of  a  man  who  was  the  medium  of  revela- 
tion, then  a  further  stage  was  reached — 'a  Prophet 
shall  the  Lord  your  God  raise  up  unto  you,  of  your 
brethren,  like  unto  me.'  The  kingdom  of  David  pre- 
pared the  way  for  the  prediction  of  the  royal  dignity 
of  the  Messiah,  as  the  peaceful  reign  of  Solomon  for 
the  expectation  of  one  who  should  bring  peace  by 
righteousness.  The  approach  of  national  disaster  and 
sorrow  was  reflected  in  Isaiah's  vision  of  the  suffering 
Messiah,  and  that  prophet's  announcements  of  exile 
had  for  their  counterpoise  the  proclamation  of  Him 
who  should  bring  liberty  to  the  captive.  So,  here,  the 
kingless  band  of  exiles,  painfully  striving  to  rear  again 


T  13]    THE  PRIEST  OF  THE  WORLD     811 

the  tabernacle  which  had  fallen  down,  are  heartened 
for  their  task  by  the  thought  of  the  priest-king  of  the 
nation,  the  builder  of  an  imperishable  dwelling-place 
for  God. 

To-day  we  need  these  truths  not  less  than  Zechariah's 
contemporaries  did.  And,  thank  God!  we  can  believe 
that,  for  every  modern  perplexity,  the  blessed  old 
words  carry  the  same  strength  and  consolation.  If 
kings  seem  to  have  perished  from  among  men,  if  autho- 
rities are  dying  out,  and  there  are  no  names  of  power 
that  can  rally  the  world — yet  there  is  a  Sovereign.  If 
old  institutions  are  crumbling,  and  must  still  further 
decay  ere  the  site  for  a  noble  structure  be  cleared,  yet 
He  shall  build  the  Temple.  If  priest  be  on  some  lips  a 
name  of  superstitious  folly,  and  on  others  a  synonym 
for  all  that  is  despised  as  effete  in  religion,  yet  this 
Priest  abideth  for  ever,  the  guide  and  the  hope  for  the 
history  of  humanity  and  for  the  individual  spirit.  Let 
us,  then,  put  ourselves  under  the  Prophet's  guidance, 
and  consider  the  eternal  truths  which  he  preaches  to 
us  too. 

I.  The  true  hope  of  the  world  is  a  priest. 

The  idea  of  priesthood  is  universal.  It  has  been  dis- 
torted and  abused  ;  it  has  been  made  the  foundation  of 
spiritual  tyranny.  The  priest  has  not  been  the  teacher 
nor  the  elevator  of  the  people.  All  over  the  world  he 
has  been  the  ally  of  oppression  and  darkness,  he  has 
hindered  and  cramped  social  and  intellectual  progress. 
And  yet,  in  spite  of  all  this,  there  the  office  stands,  and 
wherever  men  go,  by  some  strange  perversity  they 
take  w^ith  them  this  idea,  and  choose  from  among  them- 
selves those  who,  being  endowed  with  some  sort  of 
ceremonial  and  symbolic  purity,  shall  discharge  for 
their  brethren  the  double  office  of  representing  them 


312  ZECHARIAH  [ch.  vl 

before  God,  of  representing  God  to  them.  That  is  what 
the  world  means,  with  absolute  and  entire  unanimity, 
by  a  priest — one  who  shall  be  sacrificer,  intercessor, 
representative ;  bearer  of  man's  worship,  channel  of 
God's  blessing.  How  comes  it,  that,  in  spite  of  all  the 
cruelties  and  lies  that  have  gathered  round  the  office, 
it  lives,  indestructible,  among  the  families  of  men  ? 
Why,  because  it  springs  from,  and  corresponds  to,  real 
and  universal  wants  in  their  nature.  It  is  the  result  of 
the  universal  consciousness  of  sin.  Men  feel  that  there 
is  a  gulf  betwixt  them  and  God.  They  know  themselves 
to  be  all  foul.  True,  as  their  knowledge  of  God  dims 
and  darkens,  their  conscience  hardens  and  their  sense 
of  sin  lessens ;  but,  as  long  as  there  is  any  notion  of 
God  at  all,  there  will  be  a  parallel  and  corresponding 
conviction  of  moral  evil.  And  so,  feeling  that,  and  feel- 
ing it,  as  I  believe,  not  because  they  are  rude  and  bar- 
barous, but  because,  though  rude  and  barbarous,  they 
still  preserve  some  trace  of  their  true  relation  to  God, 
they  lay  hold  upon  some  of  their  fellows,  and  say, 
'  Here !  be  thou  for  us  this  thing  which  we  cannot  be 
for  ourselves — stand  thou  there  in  front  of  us,  and  be 
at  once  the  expression  of  our  knowledge  that  we  dare 
not  come  before  our  gods,  and  likewise,  if  it  may  be, 
the  medium  by  which  their  gifts  may  come  on  us, 
unworthy.' 

That  is  a  wide-spread  and  all  but  universally  ex- 
pressed instinct  of  human  nature.  Argue  about  it  as 
you  like,  explain  it  away  how  you  choose,  charge  the 
notions  of  priesthood  and  sacrifice  with  exaggeration, 
immorality,  barbarism,  if  you  will — still  the  thing 
remains.  And  I  believe  for  my  part  that,  so  far  from 
that  want  being  one  which  will  be  left  behind,  with 
other   rude  and    savage  desires,  as  men  advance  in 


V.13]    THE  PRIEST  OF  THE  WORLD     313 

civilisation — it  is  as  real  and  as  permanent  as  the  crav- 
ing of  the  understanding  for  truth,  and  of  the  heart 
for  love.  When  men  lose  it,  it  is  because  they  are 
barbarised,  not  civilised,  into  forgetting  it.  On  that 
rock  all  systems  of  religion  and  eminently  all  theories 
of  Christianity,  that  leave  out  priest  and  sacrifice,  v^ill 
strike  and  split.  The  Gospel  for  the  vrorld  must  be  one 
which  will  meet  all  the  facts  of  man's  condition.  Chief 
among  these  facts  is  this  necessity  of  the  conscience,  as 
expressed  by  the  forms  in  which  for  thousands  of  years 
the  worship  of  mankind  has  been  embodied  all  but 
everywhere  —  an  altar,  and  a  priest  standing  by  its 
side. 

I  need  not  pause  to  remind  you  how  this  Jewish 
people,  who  have  at  all  events  taught  the  world  the 
purest  Theism,  and  led  men  up  to  the  most  spiritual 
religion,  had  this  same  institution  of  a  priesthood  for 
the  very  centre  of  its  worship.  Nor  need  I  dwell  at 
length  on  the  fact  that  the  New  Testament  gives-in  its 
full  adhesion  to  the  same  idea.  We  are  told  that  all 
these  sacerdotal  allusions  in  it  are  only  putting  pure 
spiritual  truth  in  the  guise  of  the  existing  stage  of 
religious  development — the  husk,  not  the  kernel.  It 
seems  to  me  much  rather  that  the  Old  Testament  cere- 
monial— Temple,  priesthood,  sacrifice — was  established 
for  this  along  with  other  purposes,  to  be  a  shadow 
of  things  to  come.  Christ's  office  is  not  metaphorically 
illustrated  by  reference  to  the  Jewish  ritual;  but  the 
Jewish  ritual  is  the  metaphor,  and  Christ's  office  the 
reality.     He  is  the  Priest. 

And  what  is  the  priest  whom  men  crave  ? 

The  first  requisite  is  oneness  with  those  whom  he 
represents.  Men  have  ever  felt  that  one  of  themselves 
must  fill  this  office,  and  have  taken  from  among  their 


814  ZECHARIAH  [oh.  vl 

brethren  their  medium  of  communication  with  God. 
And  we  have  a  Priest  who,  '  in  all  things,  is  made  like 
unto  His  brethren,'  having  taken  part  of  their  flesh  and 
blood,  and  being  *  in  all  points  tempted  like  as  we  are.' 
The  next  requisite  is  that  these  men,  who  minister  at 
earth's  altars,  should,  by  some  lustration,  or  abstinence, 
or  whit©  robe,  or  other  external  sign,  be  separated  from 
the  profane  crowd,  and  possess,  at  all  events,  a  symbolic 
purity — expression  of  the  conviction  that  a  priest  must 
be  cleaner  and  closer  to  God  than  his  fellows.  And  we 
have  a  Priest  who  is  holy,  harmless,  undefiled,  radiant 
in  perfect  purity,  lustrous  with  the  light  of  constant 
union  with  God. 

And  again,  as  in  nature  and  character,  so  in  function, 
Christ  corresponds  to  the  widely  expressed  wants  of 
men,  as  shown  in  their  priesthoods.  They  sought  for 
one  who  should  offer  gifts  and  sacrifices  on  their  behalf, 
and  we  have  One  who  is  '  a  merciful  and  faithful  High 
Priest  to  make  reconciliation  for  the  sins  of  the  people.' 
They  sought  for  a  man  who  should  pass  into  the  awful 
presence,  and  plead  for  them  while  they  stood  without, 
and  we  lift  hopeful  eyes  of  love  to  the  heavens,  'whither 
the  Forerunner  is  for  us  entered,  even  Jesus,  made  an 
High  Priest  for  ever.'  They  sought  for  a  man  who 
should  be  the  medium  of  divine  blessings  bestowed 
upon  the  worshippers,  and  we  know  who  hath  gone 
within  the  veil,  having  ascended  up  on  high,  that  He 
might  give  gifts  unto  men. 

The  world  needs  a  priest.  Its  many  attempts  to  find 
such  show  how  deep  is  the  sense  of  need,  and  what  he 
must  be  who  shall  satisfy  them.  We  have  the  Priest 
that  the  world  and  ourselves  require.  I  believe  that 
modern  Englishmen,  with  the  latest  results  of  civilisa- 


V.13]    THE  PRIEST  OF  THE  WOKLD     315 

tion  colouring  their  minds  and  moulding  their  char- 
acters, stand  upon  the  very  same  level,  so  far  as  this 
matter  is  concerned,  as  the  veriest  savage  in  African 
wilds,  who  has  darkened  even  the  fragment  of  truth 
which  he  possesses,  till  it  has  become  a  lie  and  the 
parent  of  lies.  You  and  I,  and  all  our  brethren,  alike 
need  a  brother  who  shall  be  holy  and  close  to  God, 
who  shall  offer  sacrifices  for  us,  and  bring  God  to  us. 
For  you  and  me,  and  all  our  brethren  alike,  the  good 
news  is  true,  '  we  have  a  great  High  Priest  that  is 
passed  into  the  heavens,  Jesus,  the  Son  of  God.'  That 
message  quenches  the  fire  on  every  other  altar,  and 
strips  the  mitre  from  every  other  head.  It,  and  it  alone, 
meets  fully  and  for  ever  that  strange  craving,  which, 
though  it  has  been  productive  of  so  many  miseries  and 
so  many  errors,  though  it  has  led  to  grinding  tyranny 
and  dark  superstitions,  though  it  has  never  anywhere 
found  what  it  longs  for,  remains  deep  in  the  soul, 
indestructible  and  hungry,  till  it  is  vindicated  and 
enlightened  and  satisfied  by  the  coming  of  the  true 
Priest,  '  made  not  after  the  law  of  a  carnal  command- 
ment, but  after  the  power  of  an  endless  life.' 

II.  Our  text  tells  us,  secondly,  that  '  the  priest  of  the 
world  is  the  king  of  men.'  *  He  shall  be  a  Priest  upon 
His  throne.' 

In  Israel  these  two  offices  were  jealously  kept  apart, 
and  when  one  monarch,  in  a  fit  of  overweening  self- 
importance,  tried  to  unite  in  his  own  person  the  kingly 
and  the  priestly  functions,  'the  leprosy  rose  up  in  his  fore- 
head,' even  as  he  stood  with  the  censer  in  his  hand,  and 
'  Uzziah  the  king  was  a  leper  unto  the  day  of  his  death.' 
And  the  history  of  the  world  is  full  of  instances,  in 
which  the  struggles  of    the  temporal    and   spiritual 


316  ZECHARIAH  [ch.  vi. 

power  have  caused  calamities  only  less  intolerable  than 
those  which  flowed  from  that  alliance  of  priests  and 
kings  which  has  so  often  made  monarchy  a  grinding 
tyranny,  and  religion  a  mere  instrument  of  statecraft. 
History  being  witness,  it  would  seem  to  be  a  very 
doubtful  blessing  for  the  world  that  one  man  should 
wield  both  forms  of  control  without  check  or  limita- 
tion, and  be  at  once  king  and  priest.  If  the  words 
before  us  refer  to  any  one  but  to  Christ,  the  prophet 
had  an  altogether  mistaken  notion  about  what  w^ould 
be  good  for  men,  politically  and  ecclesiastically,  and  we 
may  be  thankful  that  his  dream  has  never  come  true. 
But  if  they  point  to  the  Son  of  David  who  has  died  for 
us,  and  declare  that  because  He  is  Priest,  He  is  therefore 
King — oh !  then  they  are  full  of  blessed  truth  concern- 
ing the  basis  and  the  nature  and  the  purpose  of  His 
dominion,  which  may  w^ell  make  us  lift  up  our  heads 
and  rejoice  that  in  the  midst  of  tyranny  and  anarchy, 
of  sovereignties  whose  ultimate  resort  is  force,  there 
is  another  kingdom — the  most  absolute  of  despotisms 
and  yet  the  most  perfect  democracy,  whose  law  is  love, 
whose  subjects  are  every  one  the  children  of  a  King, 
the  kingdom  of  that  Priest-ruler  on  whose  head  is 
Aaron's  mitre,  and  more  than  David's  crown. 

He  does  rule.  'The  kingdom  of  Christ'  is  no  unreal 
fanciful  phrase.  Take  the  lowest  ground.  Who  is  it 
that,  by  the  words  He  spoke,  by  the  deeds  He  did,  by 
the  life  He  lived,  has  shaped  the  whole  form  of  moral 
and  religious  thought  and  life  in  the  civilised  world  ? 
Is  there  One  among  the  great  of  old,  the  dead  yet 
sceptred  sovereigns,  who  still  rule  our  spirits  from  their 
urns,  whose  living  power  over  thought  and  heart  and 
deed  among  the  dominant  races  of  the  earth  is  to  be 
compared  with  His  ?   And  beyond  that,  we  believe  that, 


V.13]    THE  PRIEST  OF  THE  WORLD     317 

as  the  result  of  His  mighty  work  on  earth,  the  dominion 
of  the  "whole  creation  is  His,  and  He  is  King  of  kings, 
and  Lord  of  lords,  that  His  will  is  sovereign  and  His 
voice  is  absolute  law,  to  which  all  the  powers  of  nature, 
all  the  confusions  of  earth's  politics,  all  the  unruly  wills 
of  men,  all  the  pale  kingdoms  of  the  dead,  and  all  the 
glorious  companies  of  the  heavens,  do  bow  in  real 
though  it  be  sometimes  unconscious  and  sometimes 
reluctant  obedience. 

The  foundation  of  His  rule  is  His  sacrifice;  or  in 
other  words — no  truer  though  a  little  more  modern  in 
their  sound — men  will  do  anything  for  Him  who  does 
that  for  them.  Men  will  yield  their  whole  souls  to  the 
warmth  and  light  that  stream  from  the  Cross,  as  the 
sunflower  turns  itself  to  the  sun.  He  that  can  give  an 
anodyne  which  is  not  an  opiate,  to  my  conscience — 
He  that  can  appeal  to  my  heart  and  will,  and  say,  •  I 
have  given  Myself  for  thee,'  will  never  speak  in  vain  to 
those  who  accept  His  gift,  when  He  says,  *  Now  give 
thyself  to  Me.' 

Brethren !  it  is  not  the  thinker  who  is  the  true  king 
of  men,  as  we  sometimes  hear  it  proudly  said.  We  need 
One  who  will  not  only  show  but  be  the  Truth ;  who  will 
not  only  point,  but  open  and  be,  the  Way ;  who  will  not 
only  communicate  thought,  but  give,  because  He  is,  the 
Life.  Not  the  rabbi's  pulpit,  nor  the  teacher's  desk, 
still  less  the  gilded  chairs  of  earthly  monarchs,  least  of 
all  the  tents  of  conquerors,  are  the  throne  of  the  true 
King.  He  rules  from  the  Cross.  The  one  dominion 
worth  naming,  that  over  men's  inmost  spirits,  springs 
from  the  one  sacrifice  which  alone  calms  and  quickens 
men's  inmost  spirits.  '  Tliou  art  the  King  of  Glory,  O 
Christ,'  for  Thou  art  '  the  Lamb  of  God,  which  taketh 
away  the  sin  of  the  world.* 


318  ZECHARIAH  [ch.  vi. 

His  rule  is  wielded  in  gentleness.  Priestly  dominion 
has  ever  been  fierce,  suspicious,  tyrannous.  •  His  words 
w^ere  softer  than  oil,  yet  were  they  drawn  swords.'  But 
the  sway  of  this  merciful  and  faithful  High  Priest  is 
full  of  tenderness.  His  sceptre  is  not  the  warrior's 
mace,  nor  the  jewelled  rod  of  gold,  but  the  reed — 
emblem  of  the  lowliness  of  His  heart,  and  of  authority 
guided  by  love.  And  all  His  rule  is  for  the  blessing  of 
His  subjects,  and  the  end  of  it  is  that  they  may  be  made 
free  by  obedience,  emancipated  in  and  for  service, 
crowned  as  kings  by  submission  to  the  King  of  kings, 
consecrated  as  priests  by  their  reliance  on  the  only 
Priest  over  the  house  of  God,  whose  loving  will  rests 
not  until  it  has  made  all  His  people  like  Himself. 

Then,  dear  brethren !  amid  all  the  anarchic  chaos  of 
this  day,  when  old  institutions  are  crumbling  or  crash- 
ing into  decay,  when  the  whole  civilised  world  seems 
slowly  and  painfully  parting  from  its  old  moorings, 
and  like  some  unwieldy  raft,  is  creaking  and  straining 
at  its  chains  as  it  feels  the  impulse  of  the  swift  current 
that  is  bearing  it  to  an  unknown  sea,  when  venerable 
names  cease  to  have  power,  when  old  truths  are  flouted 
as  antiquated,  and  the  new  ones  seem  so  long  in 
making  their  appearance,  when  a  perfect  Babel  of 
voices  stuns  us,  and  on  every  side  are  pretenders  to 
the  throne  which  they  fancy  vacant,  let  us  joyfully 
welcome  all  change,  and  hopefully  anticipate  the  future. 
Lifting  our  eyes  from  the  world,  let  us  fix  them  on  the 
likeness  of  a  throne  above  the  firmament  that  is 
above  the  cherubs,  and  rejoice  since  there  we  behold 
'the  likeness  as  the  appearance  of  a  man  upon  it.' 
•  Shout,  O  daughter  of  Jerusalem ;  behold,  thy  King 
cometh  unto  thee.' 

III.    Our    text    still    further    reminds    us   that    the 


r.l3]    THE  PRIEST  OF  THE  WORLD     319 

Priest-King  of  men  builds  among  men  the  Temple  of 
God. 

The  Prophet  and  his  companions  had  become  familiar 
in  their  captivity  with  the  gigantic  palaces  and  temples 
which  Assyrian  and  Babylonian  monarchs  had  a 
passion  for  rearing.  They  had  learned  to  regard  the 
king  as  equally  magnified  by  his  conquests  and  by  his 
buildings.  Zechariah  foretells  that  the  true  King  shall 
rear  a  temple  more  lasting  than  Solomon's,  more  mag- 
nificent than  those  which  towered  on  their  marble-faced 
platforms  over  the  Chaldean  plain. 

Christ  is  Himself  the  true  Temple  of  God.  What- 
soever that  shadowed  Christ  is  or  gives.  In  Him  dwelt 
all  the  fulness  of  the  Godhead.  '  The  glory '  which  once 
dwelt  between  the  chei  ubim,  •  tabernacled  among  us  * 
in  His  flesh.  As  the  place  of  sacrifice,  as  the  place 
where  men  meet  God,  as  the  seat  of  revelation  of  the 
divine  will,  the  true  tabernacle  which  the  Lord  hath 
pitched  is  the  Manhood  of  our  Lord. 

Christ  builds  the  temple.  By  faith,  the  individual 
soul  becomes  the  abode  of  God,  and  into  our  desecrated 
spirits  there  comes  the  King  of  Glory.  '  Know  ye  not 
that  ye  are  the  temples  of  God  ? '  By  faith,  the  whole 
body  of  believing  men  'are  builded  together  for  an 
habitation  of  God  through  the  Spirit.' 

Christ  builds  this  temple  because  He  is  the  Temple. 
By  His  incarnation  and  work,  He  makes  our  com- 
munion with  God  and  God's  dwelling  in  us  possible. 
By  His  death  and  sacrifice  He  draws  men  to  Himself, 
and  blends  them  in  a  living  unity.  By  the  gift  of  His 
Spirit  and  His  life.  He  hallows  their  wills,  and  makes 
them  partakers  of  His  own  likeness ;  so  that  *  coming 
to  Him,  we  also  are  built  up  a  spiritual  house.' 

Christ  builds  the  temple,  and  uses  us  as  His  servants 


320  ZECHARIAH  [ch.  vi. 

in  the  work.  Our  prophecy  was  given  to  encourage 
faint-hearted  toilers,  not  to  supply  an  excuse  for  indo- 
lence. Underlying  all  our  poor  labours,  and  blessing 
them  all,  is  the  power  of  Christ.  We  may  well  work 
diligently  who  work  in  the  line  of  His  purposes,  after 
the  pattern  of  His  labours,  in  the  strength  of  His 
power,  under  the  watchfulness  of  His  eye.  The  little 
band  may  be  few  and  feeble ;  let  them  not  be  fearful, 
for  He,  the  throned  Priest,  even  He,  and  not  they  with 
their  inadequate  resources,  shall  build  the  temple. 

Christ  builds  on  through  all  the  ages,  and  the 
prophecy  of  our  text  is  yet  unfulfilled.  Its  fulfilment 
is  the  meaning  and  end  of  all  history.  For  the  present, 
there  has  to  be  much  destructive  as  well  as  constructive 
work  done.  Many  a  wretched  hovel,  the  abode  of 
sorrow  and  want,  many  a  den  of  infamy,  many  a 
palace  of  pride,  many  a  temple  of  idols,  will  have  to  be 
pulled  .down  yet,  and  men's  eyes  will  be  blinded  by  the 
dust,  and  their  hearts  will  ache  as  they  look  at  the 
ruins.  Be  it  so.  The  finished  structure  will  obliterate 
the  remembrance  of  poor  buildings  that  cumbered  its 
site.  This  Emperor  of  ours  may  indeed  say,  that  He 
found  the  city  of  brick  and  made  it  marble.  Have 
patience  if  His  work  is  slow ;  mourn  not  if  it  is  destruc- 
tive ;  doubt  not,  though  the  unfinished  walls,  and  cor- 
ridors that  seem  to  lead  nowhere,  and  all  the  confusion 
of  unfinished  toils  puzzle  you,  when  you  try  to  make 
out  the  plan.  See  to  it,  my  brother,  that  you  lend  a 
hand  and  help  to  rear  the  true  temple,  which  is  rising 
slowly  through  the  ages,  at  which  successive  genera- 
tions toil,  and  from  whose  unfinished  glories  they 
dying  depart,  but  which  shall  be  completed,  because 
the  true  Builder  'ever  liveth,'  and  is  'a  priest  for  ever 
after  the  order  of  Melchizedek.'    Above  all,  brethren  I 


V.  13]    THE  PRIEST  OF  THE  WORLD      321 

take  heed  that  you  are  yourselves  builded  in  that 
temple.  Travellers  sometimes  find  in  lonely  quarries 
long  abandoned  or  once  worked  by  a  vanished  race, 
great  blocks  squared  and  dressed,  that  seem  to  have 
been  meant  for  palace  or  shrine.  But  there  they  lie, 
neglected  and  forgotten,  and  the  building  for  which 
they  were  hewn  has  been  reared  without  them.  Be- 
ware lest  God's  grand  temple  should  be  built  up  with- 
out you,  and  you  be  left  to  desolation  and  decay.  Trust 
your  souls  to  Christ,  and  He  will  set  you  in  the 
spiritual  house  which  the  King  greater  than  Solomon 
is  building  still. 

In  one  of  the  mosques  of  Damascus,  which  has  been 
a  Christian  church,  and  before  that  was  a  heathen 
temple,  the  portal  bears,  deep  cut  in  Greek  characters, 
the  inscription,  '  Thy  kingdom,  O  Christ,  is  an  everlast- 
ing kingdom,  and  Thy  dominion  endureth  throughout 
all  generations.'  The  confident  words  seem  contradicted 
by  the  twelve  centuries  of  Mohammedanism  on  which 
they  have  looked  down.  But  though  their  silent  prophecy 
is  unheeded  and  unheard  by  the  worshippers  below,  it 
shall  be  proved  true  one  day,  and  the  crescent  shall  wane 
l>efore  the  steady  light  of  the  Sun  of  Righteousness. 
The  words  are  carven  deep  over  the  portals  of  the 
temple  which  Christ  rears;  and  though  men  may  not 
be  able  to  read  them,  and  may  not  believe  them  if  they 
do,  though  for  centuries  traffickers  have  defiled  its 
courts,  and  base-born  usurpers  have  set  up  their  petty 
thrones,  yet  the  writing  stands  sure,  a  dumb  witness 
against  the  transient  lies,  a  patient  prophet  of  the 
eternal  truth.  And  when  all  false  faiths,  and  their 
priests  who  have  oppressed  men  and  traduced  God, 
have  vanished ;  and  when  kings  that  have  prostituted 
their  great  and  godlike  office  to  personal  advancement 

X 


322  ZECHARIAH  [ch.  vl 

and  dynastic  ambition  are  forgotten ;  and  when  every 
shrine  reared  for  obscene  and  bloody  rites,  or  for  super- 
ficial and  formal  worship,  has  been  cast  to  the  ground, 
then  from  out  of  the  confusion  and  desolation  shall 
gleam  the  temple  of  God,  which  is  the  refuge  of  men, 
and  on  the  one  throne  of  the  universe  shall  sit  the 
Eternal  Priest — our  Brother,  Jesus  the  Christ. 


MALACHI 
A  DIALOGUE  WITH  GOD 

*  A  eon  honoTireth  his  father,  and  a  servant  his  master :  if  then  I  be  a  Father, 
where  is  Mine  honour?  and  if  I  be  a  master,  where  is  My  fear?  saith  the  Lord  of 
Hosts  unto  you,  O  priests,  that  despise  My  Name.  And  ye  say,  Wherein  have  we 
despised  Thy  Name?  7.  Ye  offer  polluted  bread  upon  Mine  altar.  And  ye  say, 
Wherein  have  we  polluted  Thee? '— Malachi  i.  6,  7. 

A  CHARACTERISTIC  of  this  latest  of  the  prophets  is 
the  vivacious  dialogue  of  which  our  text  affords  one 
example.  God  speaks  and  the  people  question  His 
word,  which  in  reply  He  reiterates  still  more  strongly. 
The  other  instances  of  its  occurrence  may  here  be  briefly 
noted,  and  we  shall  find  that  they  cover  all  the  aspects  of 
the  divine  speech  to  men,  whether  He  charges  sin  home 
upon  them  or  pronounces  threatenings  of  judgment, 
or  invites  by  gracious  promises  the  penitent  to  return. 
His  charges  of  sin  are  repelled  in  our  text  and  in  the 
following  verse  by  the  indignant  question,  'Wherein 
have  w^e  polluted  Thee?'  And  similarly  in  the  next 
chapter  the  divine  accusation,  '  Ye  have  wearied  the 
Lord  with  your  words,'  is  thrown  back  with  the  con- 
temptuous retort,  'Wherein  have  we  wearied  Him?' 
And  in  like  manner  in  the  third  chapter,  '  Ye  have 
robbed  Me,'  calls  forth  no  confession  but  only  the 
defiant  answer,  '  Wherein  have  we  robbed  Thee  ?'  And 
in  a  later  verse,  the  accusation,  '  Your  words  have  been 
stout  against  Me,'  is  traversed  by  the  question,  *  What 
have  we  spoken  so  much  against  Thee  ? '  Similarly  the 
threatening  of  judgment  that  the  Lord  will  'cut  off' 

323 


324  MALACHI  [oh.  i. 

the  men  that  'profane  the  holiness  of  the  Lord'  calls 
forth  only  the  rebutting  question,  'Wherefore?'  (ii. 
14).  And  even  the  gracious  invitation,  'Return  unto 
Me,  and  I  will  return  unto  you,'  evokes  not  penitence, 
but  the  stiff-necked  reply,  'Wherein  shall  we  return?* 
(iii.  7).  In  this  sermon  we  may  deal  with  the  first  of 
these  three  cases,  and  consider,  God's  Indictment,  and 
man's  plea  of  '  Not  guilty.' 

I.  God's  Indictment. 

The  precise  nature  of  the  charge  is  to  be  carefully  con- 
sidered. The  Name  is  the  sum  of  the  revealed  character, 
and  that  Name  has  been  despised.  The  charge  is  not 
that  it  has  been  blasphemed,  but  that  it  has  been  ne- 
glected, or  under-estimated,  or  cared  little  about.  The 
pollution  of  the  table  of  the  Lord  is  the  overt  act  by 
which  the  attitude  of  mind  and  heart  expressed  in 
despising  His  Name  is  manifested  ;  but  the  overt  act  is 
secondary  and  not  primary — a  symptom  of  a  deeper- 
lying  disease.  And  herein  our  Prophet  is  true  to  the 
whole  tenor  of  the  Old  Testament  teaching,  which  draws 
its  indictment  against  men  primarily  in  regard  to  their 
attitude,  and  only  as  a  manifestation  of  that,  to  their 
acts.  The  same  deed  may  be,  if  estimated  in  relation  to 
human  law,  a  crime  :  if  estimated  in  relation  to  godless 
ethics,  a  wrong  ;  and  if  estimated  in  the  only  right  way, 
namely,  the  attitude  towards  God  which  it  reveals,  a 
sin.  '  The  despising  of  His  Name'  may  be  taken  as  the 
very  definition  of  sin.  It  is  usual  with  men  to-day  to 
say  that  '  Sin  is  selfishness ' ;  but  that  statement  does 
not  go  deep  enough  unless  it  be  recognised  that  self- 
regard  only  becomes  sin  when  it  rears  its  puny  self  in 
opposition  to,  or  in  disregard  of,  the  plain  will  of  God. 
The  '  New  Theology,'  of  course,  minimises,  even  where 
it   does  not,  as  it  to  be  consistent  should,  deny  the 


vs.  6, 7]      A  DIALOGUE  WITH  GOD  325 

possibility  of  sin  :  for,  if  God  is  all  and  all  is  God,  there 
can  be  no  opposition,  there  can  be  no  divine  will  to  be 
opposed,  and  no  human  will  to  oppose  it.  But  the  fact 
of  sin  certified  by  men's  own  consciences  is  the  rock 
on  which  Pantheism  must  always  strike  and  sink.  A 
superficial  view  of  human  history  and  of  human  nature 
may  try  to  explain  away  the  fact  of  sin  by  shallow  talk 
about  'heredity'  and  'environment,'  or  about  'ignorance' 
and  '  mistakes' ;  but  after  all  such  euphemistic  attempts 
to  rechristen  the  ugly  thing  by  beguiling  names,  the 
fact  remains,  and  conscience  bears  sometimes  un- 
willing witness  to  its  existence,  that  men  do  set  their 
own  inclinations  against  God's  commands,  and  that 
there  is  in  them  that  which  is  '  not  subject  to  the  law 
of  God,  neither  indeed  can  be.'  The  root  of  all  sin  is 
the  despising  of  His  Name. 

And  as  sin  has  but  one  root,  it  has  many  branches, 
and  as  working  backwards  from  deed  to  motive,  we 
find  one  common  element  in  all  the  various  acts;  so 
working  outwards  from  motive  to  deed,  we  have  to 
see  one  common  character  stamped  upon  a  tragical 
variety  of  acts.  The  poison-w^ater  is  exhibited  in  many 
variously  coloured  and  tasted  draughts,  but  however 
unlike  each  other  they  may  be,  it  is  always  the  same. 

The  great  effort  of  God's  love  is  to  press  homo  this 
consciousness  of  despising  His  Name  upon  all  hearts. 
The  sorrows,  losses,  and  disappointments  which  come 
to  us  all  are  not  meant  only  to  make  us  suffer,  but 
through  suffering  to  lead  us  to  recognise  how  far  we 
have  wandered  from  our  Father,  and  to  bring  us 
back  to  His  heart  and  our  home.  The  beginning  of 
all  good  in  us  is  the  contrite  acknowledgment  of  our 
evil.  Christ's  first  preaching  was  the  continuation  of 
John's    message,    '  Repent    ye,    for    the    kingdom    of 


326  MALACHI  [oh.  i. 

heaven  is  at  hand';  and  His  tenderest  revelation  of 
the  divine  love  incarnated  in  Himself  was  meant  to 
arouse  the  penitent  confession,  '  I  am  uj  more  worthy 
to  be  called  Thy  son,'  and  the  quickening  resolve,  'I 
will  arise  and  go  to  my  Father.'  There  is  no  way 
to  God  but  through  the  narrow  gate  of  repentance. 
There  is  no  true  reception  of  the  gift  of  Christ  which 
aoes  not  begin  with  a  vivid  and  heart-broken  con- 
sciousness of  my  own  sin.  We  can  pass  into,  and 
abide  in,  the  large  room  of  joyous  acceptance  and 
fellowship,  but  we  must  reach  it  by  a  narrow  path 
walled  in  by  gloomy  rocks  and  trodden  with  bleed- 
ing feet.  The  penitent  knowledge  of  our  sin  is  the 
first  step  towards  the  triumphant  knowledge  of 
Christ's  righteousness  as  ours.  Only  they  who  have 
called  out  in  the  agony  of  their  souls,  '  Lord,  save  us, 
we  perish,'  have  truly  learned  the  love  of  God,  and 
truly  possess  the  salvation  that  is  in  Christ. 

II.  Man's  plea  of  '  Not  Guilty.' 

That  such  an  answer  should  be  given  to  such  a 
charge  is  a  strange,  solemn  fact,  which  tragically  con- 
firms the  true  indictment.  The  effect  of  all  sin  is  to 
make  us  less  conscious  of  its  presence,  as  persons  in  an 
unventilated  room  are  not  aware  of  its  closeness.  It 
is  with  profound  truth  that  the  Apostle  speaks  of  being 
hardened  by  the  '  deceitfulness '  of  sin.  It  comes  to  us 
in  a  cloud  and  enfolds  us  in  obscure  mist.  Like  white 
ants,  it  never  works  in  the  open,  but  makes  a  tunnel 
or  burrows  under  ground,  and,  hidden  in  some  piece 
of  furniture,  eats  away  all  its  substance  whilst  it  seems 
perfectly  solid.  The  man's  perception  of  the  standard 
of  duty  is  enfeebled.  We  lose  our  sense  of  the  moral 
character  of  any  habiiual  action,  just  as  a  man  who 
has  lived  all  his  life  in  a  slum  sees  little  of  its  hideous- 


vs.  6, 7]      A  DIALOGUE  WITH  GOD  827 

ness,  and  knows  nothing  of  green  fields  and  fresh  air. 
Conscience  is  silenced  by  being  neglected.  It  can  be 
wrongly  educated  and  perverted,  so  that  it  may  regard 
sin  as  doing  God's  service ;  and  the  only  judgment  in 
which  it  can  be  absolutely  trusted  is  the  declaration 
that  it  is  right  to  do  right,  while  all  its  other  decisions 
as  to  what  is  right  may  be  biassed  by  self-interest ;  but 
the  force  with  which  it  pronounces  its  only  unalterable 
decision  depends  on  the  whole  tenor  of  the  life  of  the 
man.  The  sins  which  are  most  in  accordance  with  our 
characters,  and  are  therefore  most  deeply  rooted  in  us, 
are  those  which  we  are  least  likely  to  recognise  as  sins. 
So,  the  more  sinful  we  are,  the  less  we  know  it ;  there- 
fore there  is  need  for  a  fixed  standard  outside  of  us. 
The  light  on  the  deck  cannot  guide  us ;  there  must  be 
the  lighthouse  on  the  rock.  This  sad  answer  of  the 
heart  untouched  by  God's  appeal  prevents  all  further 
access  of  God's  love  to  that  heart.  That  love  can  only 
enter  when  the  reply  to  its  indictment  is,  *I  have 
despised  Thy  name.' 

Let  us  not  forget  the  New  Testament  modification  of 
the  divine  accusation.  '  In  Christ '  is  the  Name  of  God 
fully  and  finally  revealed  to  men.  For  us  who  live  in 
the  blaze  of  the  ineffable  brightness  of  the  revelation, 
our  attitude  towards  Him  who  brings  it  is  the  test  of 
our  '  hallowing  of  the  Name '  which  He  brings.  He 
Himself  has  varied  Malachi's  indictment  when  He  said, 
*  He  that  despiseth  Me  despiseth  Him  that  sent  Me.' 
Our  sin  is  now  to  be  measured  by  our  under-estimate  and 
neglect  of  Him,and  chiefly  of  His  Cross.  That  Cross  pre- 
vents our  consciousness  of  sin  from  becoming  despair 
of  pardon.  Judas  went  out,  and  with  bitter  weeping, 
himself  ended  his  traitorous  life.  If  God's  last  word  to 
us  were,  *  Ye  have  despised  My  Name,'  and  it  sank  into 


328  MALACHI  [oh.  i. 

our  souls,  there  would  be  no  hope  for  any  of  us.  But 
the  message  which  begins  with  the  universal  indict- 
ment of  sin  passes  into  the  message  which  holds  forth 
forgiveness  and  freedom  as  universal  as  the  sin,  and 
•  God  hath  concluded  all  in  unbelief  that  He  may  have 
mercy  upon  all.' 


BLEMISHED  OFFERINGS 

'  Offer  it  novr  unto  thy  governor ;  will  he  be  pleased  with  thee,  or  accept  thy 
person  ?  saith  the  Lord  of  Hosts.'— Malaohi  i.  8. 

A  WORD  of  explanation  may  indicate  my  purpose  in 
selecting  this,  I  am  afraid,  unfamiliar  text.  The 
Prophet  has  been  vehemently  rebuking  a  characteristic 
mean  practice  of  the  priests,  who  were  offering  maimed 
and  diseased  animals  in  sacrifice.  They  were  probably 
dishonest  as  well  as  mean,  because  the  worshippers 
would  bring  sound  beasts,  and  the  priests,  for  their  own 
profit,  slipped  in  a  worthless  animal,  and  kept  the 
valuable  one  for  themselves.  They  had  become  so 
habituated  to  this  piece  of  economical  religion,  that 
they  saw  no  harm  in  it,  and  when  they  offered  the 
lame  and  the  sick  and  the  blind  for  sacrifice  they  said 
to  themselves,  '  It  is  not  evil.'  And  so  Malachi,  with 
the  sudden  sharp  thrust  of  my  text,  tries  to  rouse  their 
torpid  consciences.  He  says  to  them:  'Take  that 
diseased  creature  that  you  are  not  ashamed  to  lay  on 
God's  altar,  and  try  what  the  governor' — the  official 
appointed  by  the  Persian  Kings  to  rule  over  the  re- 
turned exiles — '  will  think  about  it.  Will  an  offering 
of  that  sort  be  considered  a  compliment  or  an  insult  ? 
Do  you  think  it  will  smooth  your  way  or  help  your 
suit  with  him  ?   Surely  God  deserves  as  much  reverence 


V.8]  BLEMISHED  OFFERINGS  329 

as  the  deputy  of  Artaxerxes.  Surely  what  is  not  good 
enough  for  a  Persian  satrap  is  not  good  enough  for  the 
Lord  of  Hosts.  Offer  it  to  the  governor,  will  he  be 
pleased  with  it?    Will  he  accept  thy  person?' 

Now,  it  seems  to  me  that  this  cheap  religion  of  the 
priests,  and  this  scathing  irony  of  the  Prophet's  counsel 
need  little  modification  to  fit  us  very  closely.  You  will 
bear  me  witness,  I  think,  that  I  do  not  often  speak  to 
you  about  money.  But  I  am  going  to  try  to  bring  out 
something  about  the  great  subject  of  Christian  adminis- 
tration of  earthly  possessions  from  this  text,  because  I 
believe  that  the  Christian  consciousness  of  this  genera- 
tion does  need  a  great  deal  of  rousing  and  instructing 
about  this  matter. 

I.  We  note  the  startling  and  strange  contrast  which 
the  text  suggests. 

The  diseased  lamb  was  laid  without  scruple  or  hesita- 
tion on  God's  altar,  and  not  one  of  these  tricky  priests 
durst  have  taken  it  to  Court  in  order  to  secure  favour 
there.  Generalise  that,  and  it  comes  to  this — the  gifts 
that  we  lavish  on  men  are  the  condemnation  of  the 
gifts  that  we  bring  to  God ;  and  further,  we  should  be 
ashamed  to  offer  to  men  what  we  are  not  in  the  least 
ashamed  to  bring  to  God.  Let  me  illustrate  in  one  or 
two  points. 

Let  us  contrast  in  our  own  consciences,  for  instance, 
the  sort  of  love  that  we  give  to  one  another  with  the 
sort  of  love  that  we  bring  to  Him.  How  strong,  how 
perennially  active,  how  delighting  in  sacrifice  and 
service,  what  a  felt  source  of  blessedness  is  the  love 
that  knits  many  husbands  and  wives,  many  parents 
and  children,  many  lovers  and  friends  together  !  And 
in  dreadful  contrast,  how  languid,  how  sporadic  and 
interrupted,  how  reluctant  when  called  upon  for  service 


830  MALACHI  [ch.  l 

and  sacrifice,  how  little  operative  in  our  lives  is  the  love 
we  bring  to  God  !  We  durst  not  lay  upon  the  altar  of 
family  affection,  of  wedded  love,  of  true  friendship,  a 
love  of  such  a  sort  as  we  take  to  God  and  expect  Him 
to  be  satisfied  with.  It  would  be  an  insult  if  offered  to 
'the  governor,'  but  we  think  it  good  enough  for  the 
King  of  kings.  Here  a  gushing  flood,  there  a  straitened 
trickle  coming  drop  by  drop;  here  a  glowing  fiame 
that  fills  life  with  warmth  and  light,  there  a  few  dying 
embers.  Measure  and  contrast  the  love  that  is  lavished 
by  men  upon  one  another,  and  the  love  that  is  coldly 
brought  to  Him.  And  I  think  we  must  all  bow  our 
heads  penitently. 

Contrast  the  trust  that  we  put  in  one  another,  and  the 
trust  that  we  direct  to  Him.  In  the  one  case  it  is  abso- 
lute. 'I  am  as  sure  as  I  am  of  my  own  existence  that 
so-and-so  will  always  be  as  true  as  steel  to  me,  and  will 
never  fail  me,  and  whatever  he,  or  she,  does,  or  fails  to 
do,  no  shadow  of  suspicion,  or  mist  of  doubt,  will  creep 
across  the  sunshine  of  our  sky.'  And  in  contrast  to  the 
firm  grasp  with  which  we  clasp  an  infirm  human  hand, 
there  is  a  tremulous  touch,  scarcely  a  grasp  at  all, 
which  we  lay  upon  the  one  Hand  that  is  strong  enough 
always  to  be  outstretched  for  our  defence  and  our 
blessing.  Contrast  your  confidence  in  men,  and  your 
confidence  in  God.  Are  we  not  all  committing  the 
absurdity  of  absolutely  trusting  that  which  has  no 
stability  or  stay,  and  refusing  so  to  trust  that  which  is 
the  Rock  of  Ages?  God's  faithfulness  is  absolute,  our 
faith  in  it  is  tremulous.  Men's  faithfulness  is  uncertain, 
our  faith  in  it  is  entire. 

We  might  contrast  the  submission  and  obedience 
with  which  we  follow  those  who  have  secured  our  con- 
fidence and  evoked  our  love,  as  contrasted  with  the 


V.8]  BLEMISHED  OFFERINGS  881 

rebellion,  the  reluctance,  the  self-will,  which  come  in 
to  break  and  mar  our  submission  to  God.  Men  that 
will  not  take  Jesus  Christ  for  their  Master,  and  refuse 
to  follow  Him  when  He  speaks,  will  bind  themselves  to 
some  human  teacher,  and  enrol  themselves  as  disciples 
in  some  school  of  thought  or  science  or  philosophy,  with 
a  submission  so  entire,  that  it  puts  to  shame  the  sub- 
mission which  Christians  render  to  the  Incarnate  Truth 
Himself. 

And  so  I  might  go  on,  all  round  the  horizon  of  our 
human  nature,  and  signalise  the  difference  that  exists 
between  the  blemished  sacrifices  which  each  part  of 
our  being  dares  to  bring  to  God  and  expects  Him  to 
accept,  and  the  sacrifices,  unblemished  and  spotless, 
which  we  carry  to  one  another. 

But  let  me  say  a  word  more  directly  about  the  subject 
of  which  Malachi  is  speaking.  It  seems  to  me  that  we 
may  well  take  a  very  condemnatory  contrast  between 
what  we  offer  to  God  in  regard  to  our  administration 
of  earthly  good,  and  what  we  offer  on  other  altars. 
Contrast  what  you  give,  for  directly  beneficent  and 
Christian  purposes,  with  what  you  spend,  without  two 
thoughts,  on  your  own  comfort,  indulgence,  recrea- 
tion, tastes — sometimes  doubtful  tastes — and  the  like. 
Contrast  England's  drink  bill  and  England's  mission- 
ary contribution.  We  spend  £10,000,000  on  some 
wretched  war,  and  some  of  you  think  it  is  cheap  at 
the  price,  and  the  whole  contributions  of  English 
Christians  to  missionary  purposes  in  a  twelvemonth  do 
not  amount  to  a  tenth  of  that  sum.  You  offer  that  to 
the  spread  of  Christ's  kingdom.  'Offer  it  to  your 
Government,'  and  try  to  compound  for  your  share  of 
the  ten  millions  that  you  are  going  to  spend  in  shells 
and  gunpowder  by  the  amount  you  give  to  Christian 


332  MALACHI  [oh.  i. 

missions,  and  you  will  very  soon  have  the  tax-gatherer 
down  on  you.    '  Will  he  be  pleased  with  it  ? ' 

This  one  Missionary  Society  with  which  we  are  nomi- 
nally connected  has  an  income  of  £70,000  a  year.  I 
suppose  that  is  about  a  shilling  per  head  from  the 
members  of  our  congregations.  Of  this  congregation 
there  are  many  that  never  give  us  a  farthing,  except, 
perhaps,  the  smallest  coin  in  their  pockets  when  the 
collecting-box  comes  round.  I  do  not  suppose  that 
there  is  one  of  us  that  applies  the  underlying  principle 
in  our  text,  of  giving  God  our  best,  to  this  work.  I 
am  not  going  to  urge  you.  It  is  my  business  now 
simply  to  state,  as  boldly  and  strongly  as  I  can,  the  fact ; 
and  I  say  with  all  sadness,  with  self-condemnation,  as 
well  as  bringing  an  indictment  against  my  brethren, 
but  with  the  clearest  conviction  that  I  am  not  exagger- 
ating in  the  smallest  degree,  that  the  contrast  between 
what  we  lavish  on  other  things  and  what  we  give  for 
God's  work  in  the  world,  is  a  shameful  contrast,  like 
that  other  which  the  Prophet  gibbeted  with  his  indig- 
nant eloquence. 

II.  And  now  let  me  come  to  another  point — viz.,  that 
we  have  here  suggested  and  implied  th-e  true  law  and 
principle  on  which  all  Christian  giving  of  all  sorts  is  to 
be  regulated. 

And  that  is — give  the  best.  The  diseased  animal 
was  no  more  fit  for  the  altar  of  God  than  it  was  for  the 
shambles  of  the  viceroy.  It  was  the  entire  and  un- 
blemished one  that  would  be  accepted  in  either  case. 
But  for  us  Christian  people  that  general  principle  has 
to  be  expanded.    Let  me  do  it  in  two  or  three  sentences. 

The  foundation  of  all  is  '  the  unspeakable  Gift.'  Jesus 
Christ  has  given  Himself,  God  has  given  His  Son.  And 
Jesus  Christ  and  God,  in  giving,  gave  up  that  we  might 


T.8]  BLEMISHED  OFFERINGS  338 

receive.  Do  you  believe  that  ?  Do  you  believe  it  about 
yourself?  If  you  do,  then  the  next  step  becomes 
certain.  That  gift,  truly  received  by  any  man,  will 
infallibly  lead  to  a  kindred  (though  infinitely  inferior) 
self-surrender.  If  once  we  come  within  the  circle  of 
the  attraction  of  that  great  Sun,  if  I  might  so  say,  it 
will  sweep  us  clean  out  of  our  orbit,  and  turn  us  into 
satellites  reflecting  His  light.  To  have  self  for  our 
centre  is  death  and  misery,  to  have  Christ  for  our  centre 
is  life  and  blessedness.  And  the  one  power  that  decen- 
tralises a  man,  and  sweeps  him  into  an  orbit  around 
Jesus,  is  the  faithful  acceptance  of  His  great  gift.  Just 
as  some  little  State  will  give  up  its  independence  in 
order  to  be  blessedly  absorbed  into  a  great  Empire,  on 
the  frontiers  of  which  it  maintains  a  precarious  exist- 
ence, so  a  man  is  never  so  strong,  never  so  blessed, 
never  so  truly  himself,  as  when  the  might  of  Christ's 
sacrifice  has  melted  down  all  his  selfishness,  and  has 
made  it  flow  out  in  rivers  of  self-surrender,  self-absorp- 
tion, self-annihilation,  and  so  self-preservation.  '  He 
that  loseth  his  life  shall  find  it.' 

Then  the  next  step  is  that  this  self-surrender,  con- 
sequent upon  my  faithful  acceptance  of  the  Lord's 
surrender  for  me,  changes  my  whole  conception  as  to 
what  I  call  my  possessions.  If  I,  in  the  depths  of  my 
soul,  have  yielded  myself  to  Jesus  Christ,  which  I  shall 
have  done  if  I  have  truly  accepted  Him  as  yielding 
Himself  for  me,  then  the  yielding  of  self  draws  after  it, 
necessarily,  and  without  a  question,  a  new  relation 
between  me  and  all  that  I  have  and  all  that  I  can  do. 
Capacities,  faculties,  means,  opportunities,  powers  of 
brain  and  heart  and  mind,  and  everything  else — they 
all  belong  to  Him.  As  in  old  times  a  nobleman  came 
and  put  his  hands    between    the    King's    hands,  and 


334  MALACHI  [ch.  i. 

kneeling  before  him  surrendered  his  lands,  and  all  his 
property,  to  the  over-lord,  and  got  them  back  again  for 
his  own,  so  we  shall  do,  in  the  measure  in  which  we 
have  accepted  Christ  as  our  Saviour  and  our  Guide. 
And  so,  because  I  am  His,  I  shall  feel  that  I  am  His 
steward  to  administer  what  He  gives  me,  not  for 
myself,  but  for  men  and  for  God. 

Then  there  follows  another  thing,  and  that  is,  that 
Christian  giving,  not  of  money  only,  but  of  money  in  a 
very  eminent  degree,  is  only  right  and  truly  Christian 
when  you  give  yourself  with  your  gift.  A  great  many 
of  us  put  our  sixpence,  or  our  half-crown,  or  our 
sovereign,  into  the  plate,  and  no  part  of  ourselves  goes 
with  it,  except  a  little  twinge  of  unwillingness  to  part 
with  it.  That  is  how  they  fling  bones  to  dogs.  That  is 
not  how  you  have  to  give  your  money  and  your  efforts 
to  God  and  God's  cause.  Farmers  nowadays  sow  their 
seed-corn  out  of  a  machine  with  a  number  of  little 
conical  receptacles  at  the  back  of  it  and  a  small  hole  in 
the  bottom  of  each,  and  as  the  thing  goes  bumping 
along  over  the  furrows,  out  they  fall.  That  drill  does 
as  well  as,  and  better  than,  the  hand  of  the  sower 
scattering  the  seed,  but  it  does  not  do  near  as  well  in 
the  Christian  agriculture  in  sowing  the  seed  of  the 
Kingdom.  Machine-work  will  not  do  there ;  we  have 
to  have  the  sower's  hand,  and  the  sower's  heart  with  his 
hand,  as  he  scatters  the  seed.  Brethren  !  apply  the 
lesson  to  yourselves,  and  let  your  sympathies  and  your 
prayers  and  your  wishes  to  help  go  along  with  your 
gifts,  if  you  intend  them  to  be  of  any  good. 

And  there  is  another  thing,  and  that  is  that,  some- 
how or  other,  if  not  in  the  individual  gifts,  at  all  events 
in  their  aggregate,  there  must  be  present  the  fact  of 
sacrifice.     '  I  will  not  offer  unto  the  Lord  burnt  offer- 


V.8]  BLEMISHED  OFFERINGS  335 

ings  of  that  which  doth  cost  me  nothing,'  said  the  old 
king.  And  we  do  not  give  as  we  ought,  unless  our 
gifts  involve  some  measure  of  sacrifice.  From  many  a 
subscription  list  some  of  the  biggest  donations  would 
disappear,  like  the  top-writing  in  one  of  those  old 
manuscripts  where  the  Gospel  has  been  half-erased 
and  written  over  with  some  foolish  legend,  which 
vanishes  when  the  detergent  liquid  is  applied  to  the 
parchment,  if  that  thought  were  brought  to  bear  upon 
it.    God  asks  how  much  is  kept,  not  how  much  is  given. 

Now,  dear  friends,  these*  are  all  threadbare,  elemen- 
tary, 'A. B.C.'  truths.  Are  they  the  alphabet  of  our 
stewardship  and  administration  of  our  possessions  ? 

III.  One  last  suggestion  I  would  make  on  this  text  is 
that  it  brings  before  us  the  possible  blessing  and  possible 
grave  results  of  right  or  wrong  Christian  giving. 

•  Will  he  be  pleased  with  it  ?  Or  will  he  accept  thy 
person? '  Will  the  governor  think  the  hobbling  creature, 
blind  of  an  eye,  and  infected  with  some  sickness,  to  be 
a  beautiful  addition  to  his  flock?  Will  it  help  your 
suit  with  him  ?     No ! 

It  is  New  Testament  teaching  that  our  faithfulness  in 
the  administration  of  earthly  possessions  of  all  sorts 
has  a  bearing  on  our  spiritual  life.  Remember  our 
Lord's  triple  illustration  of  this  principle,  when  He 
speaks  about  faithfulness  '  in  that  which  is  least,'  lead- 
ing on  to  the  possession  of  that  which  is  the  greatest; 
when  He  speaks  of  faithfulness  in  regard  to  *  the  un- 
righteous Mammon '  leading  on  to  being  intrusted  with 
the  true  riches ;  when  He  speaks  of  faithfulness  in  our 
administration  of  that  which  is  another's — alien  to  our- 
selves, and  which  may  pass  into  the  possession  of  a 
thousand  more — leading  on  to  our  firmer  hold,  and  our 
deeper  and  fuller  possession  of  the  riches  which,  in  the 


336  MALACHI    ,  [oh.i. 

deepest  sense  of  the  word,  are  our  own.  One  very 
important  element  in  the  development  and  advance  of 
the  religious  life  is  our  right  use  of  these  earthly  things. 
I  have  seen  many  a  case  in  which  a  man  was  far  better 
when  he  was  a  poor  man  than  he  was  when  a  rich  one, 
in  which  slowly,  stealthily,  certainly,  the  love  of  wealth 
has  closed  round  a  man  like  an  iron  band  round  a 
sapling,  and  has  hindered  the  growth  of  his  Christian 
character,  and  robbed  him  of  the  best  things.  And, 
God  be  thanked !  one  has  seen  cases,  too,  in  which,  by 
their  Christian  use  of  outward  possessions,  men  have 
weakened  the  dominion  of  self  upon  themselves,  have 
learned  the  subordinate  value  of  the  wealth  that  can  be 
counted  and  detached  from  its  possessor,  and  have 
grown  in  the  grace  and  knowledge  of  the  Lord  and 
Saviour  Jesus  Christ.  Dear  friends,  God  has  given  all 
of  us  something  in  charge,  the  faithful  use  of  which  is  a 
potent  factor  in  the  growth  of  our  Christian  characters. 
It  is  New  Testament  teaching  that  our  faithful 
administration  of  earthly  possessions  has  a  bearing  on 
the  future.  Remember  what  Jesus  Christ  said,  '  That 
when  ye  fail  they  may  receive  you  into  everlasting 
habitations.'  Remember  what  His  Apostle  says, '  Laying 
up  in  store  for  themselves  a  good  foundation  against 
the  time  to  come,  that  they  may  lay  hold  on  eternal 
life.'  Let  no  fear  of  imperilling  the  great  truth  of 
salvation  by  faith  lead  us  to  forget  that  the  faith 
which  saves  manifests  its  vitality  and  genuineness,  by 
its  effects  upon  our  lives,  and  that  no  small  part  of  our 
lives  is  concerned  with  the  right  acquisition  and  right 
use  of  these  perishable  outward  gifts.  And  let  us  take 
care  that  we  do  not,  in  our  dread  of  damaging  the  free 
grace  of  God,  forget  that  although  we  do  not  earn 
blessedness,  here  or  hereafter,  by  gifts  whilst  we  are 


V.8]  A  DIALOGUE  WITH  GOD  887 

living  or  legacies  when  we  are  dead,  the  administra- 
tion of  money  has  an  important  part  to  play  in  shaping 
Christian  character,  and  the  Christian  character  which 
we  acquire  here  settles  our  hereafter. 

Brethren  1  we  all  need  to  revise  our  scale  of  giving, 
especially  in  regard  to  missionary  operations.  And  if 
we  will  do  that  at  the  foot  of  the  Cross,  then  we  shall 
join  the  chorus,  '  Worthy  is  the  Lamb  that  was  slain 
to  receive  riches,'  and  we  shall  come  to  Him  *  bringing 
our  silver  and  our  gold  with  us,'  rejoicing  that  He  gives 
us  the  possibility  of  sharing  His  blessedness,  '  according 
to  the  word  of  the  Lord  Jesus  which  He  spake,  It  is 
m.ore  blessed  to  give  than  to  receive.* 


A  DIALOGUE  WITH  GOD 

'The  Lord  will  cut  off  the  man  that  doeth  this  .  .  .  out  of  the  tents  of  Jacob, 
...  14,  Yet  ye  say.  Wherefore?  Because  the  Lord  hath  been  witness  between 
thee  and  the  wife  of  thy  youth.'— Malachi  ii.  12, 14  (R.V.). 

It  is  obvious  from  the  whole  context  that  divorce  and 
foreign  inter  -  marriage  were  becoming  increasingly 
prevalent  in  Malachi's  time.  The  conditions  in  these 
respects  were  nearly  similar  to  that  prevailing  in  the 
times  of  Ezra  and  Nehemiah.  It  is  these  sins  which 
the  Prophet  is  here  vehemently  condemning,  and  for 
which  he  threatens  to  cut  off  the  transgressors  out  of 
the  tents  of  Jacob,  and  to  regard  no  more  their  offer- 
ings and  simulated  worship.  They  might  cover  '  the 
altar  of  the  Lord  with  tears,'  but  the  sacrifice  which 
they  laid  upon  it  was  polluted  by  the  sins  of  their 
daily  domestic  life,  and  therefore  was  not  'regarded 
by  Him  any  more.'  Malachi  is  true  to  the  prophetic 
spirit  when  he  denounces  a  religion  which  has  the 
form  of  godliness  without  its  power  over  the  practical 

T 


838  MALACHI  [cH.n. 

life.  But  his  sharp  accusations  have  their  edge  turned 
by  the  question,  'Wherefore?'  which  again  calls  out 
from  the  Prophet's  lips  a  more  sharply-pointed  accusa- 
tion, and  a  solemner  warning  that  none  should  '  deal 
treacherously  against  the  wife  of  his  youth,'  '  for  I  hate 
putting  away,  saith  the  Lord.'  We  may  dismiss  any 
further  reference  to  the  circumstances  of  the  text,  and 
regard  it  as  but  one  instance  of  man's  way  of  treating ' 
the  voice  of  God  when  it  warns  of  the  consequences 
of  the  sin  of  man.  Looked  at  from  such  a  point  of 
view  the  words  of  our  text  bring  before  us  God's  merci- 
ful threatenings  and  man's  incredulous  rejection  of 
them. 

I.  God's  merciful  threatenings. 

The  fact  of  sin  affects  God's  relation  to  and  dealings 
with  the  sinner.  It  does  not  prevent  the  flowing  forth 
of  His  love,  which  is  not  drawn  out  by  anything  in  us, 
but  wells  up  from  the  depths  of  His  being,  like  the 
Jordan  from  its  source  at  Dan,  a  broad  stream  gushing 
forth  from  the  rock.  But  that  love  which  is  the  out- 
going of  perfect  moral  purity  must  necessarily  become 
perfect  opposition  to  its  own  opposite  in  the  sinfulness 
of  man.  The  divine  character  is  many-sided,  and  whilst 
'  to  the  pure '  it '  shows  itself  pure,'  it  cannot  but  be  that 
'  to  the  f  roward '  it  *  will  show  itself  f  reward.'  Man's  sin 
has  for  its  most  certain  and  dreadful  consequence  that, 
if  we  may  so  say,  it  forces  God  to  present  the  stern 
side  of  His  nature  which  hates  evil.  But  not  merely 
does  sin  thus  modify  the  fact  of  the  divine  relation  to 
men,  but  it  throws  men  into  opposition  in  which  they 
can  see  only  the  darkness  which  dwells  in  the  light  of 
God.  To  the  eye  looking  through  a  red  tinted  medium 
all  things  are  red,  and  even  the  crystal  sea  before  the 
throne  is  '  a  sea  of  glass  mingled  with  fire.' 


V8.12,U]  A  DIALOGUE  WITH  GOD  339 

No  sin  can  stay  our  reception  of  a  multitude  of  good 
gifts  appealing  to  our  hearts  and  revealing  the  patient 
love  of  our  Father  in  heaven,  but  every  sin  draws  after 
it  as  certainly  as  the  shadow  follows  the  substance, 
evil  consequences  which  work  themselves  out  on  the 
large  scale  in  nations  and  communities,  and  in  the 
smaller  spheres  of  individual  life.  And  surely  it  is 
the  voice  of  love  and  not  of  anger  that  comes  to  warn 
us  of  the  death  which  is  the  wages  of  sin.  It  is  not  God 
who  has  ordained  that  '  the  soul  that  sinneth  it  shall 
die,'  but  it  is  God  who  tells  us  so.  The  train  is  rushing 
full  steam  ahead  to  the  broken  bridge,  and  will  crash 
down  the  gulph  and  be  huddled,  a  hideous  ruin,  on  the 
rocks ;  surely  it  is  care  for  life  that  holds  out  the  red 
flag  of  danger,  and  surely  God  is  not  to  be  blamed  if  in 
spite  of  the  flag  full  speed  is  kept  up  and  the  crash 
comes. 

The  miseries  and  sufferings  which  follow  our  sins  are 
self-inflicted,  and  for  the  most  part  automatic.  'What- 
soever a  man  soweth,  that' — and  not  some  other  crop — 
'  will  he  also  reap.'  The  wages  of  sin  are  paid  in  ready 
money ;  and  it  is  as  just  to  lay  them  at  God's  door  as 
it  would  be  to  charge  Him  with  inflicting  the  disease 
which  the  dissolute  man  brings  upon  himself.  It  is  no 
arbitrary  appointment  of  God's  that '  he  that  soweth  to 
the  flesh  shall  of  the  flesh  reap  corruption ' ;  nor  is  it 
His  will  acting  as  that  of  a  jealous  despot  which  makes 
it  inevitably  true  that  here  and  hereafter,  'Every  trans- 
gression and  disobedience  shall  receive  its  just  recom- 
pense of  reward,'  and  that  to  be  parted  from  Him  is 
death. 

If  then  we  rightly  understand  the  connection  be- 
tween sin  and  suffering,  and  the  fact  that  the  sorrows 
which  are  but  the  echoes  of  preceding  sins  have  all  a 


340  MALACHI  [ch.  n. 

distinctly  moral  and  restorative  purpose,  we  are  pre- 
pared rightly  to  estimate  how  tenderly  the  God  who 
warns  us  against  our  sins  by  what  men  call  threaten- 
ings  loves  us  while  He  speaks. 

II.  Man's  rejection  of  God's  merciful  threatenings. 

It  is  the  great  mystery  and  tragedy  of  life  that  men 
oppose  themselves  to  God's  merciful  warnings  that 
all  sin  is  a  bitter,  because  it  is  an  evil,  thing.  He  has 
to  lament, '  I  have  smitten  your  children,  and  they  have 
received  no  correction.'  The  question  '  Wherefore  ? '  is 
asked  in  very  various  tones,  but  none  of  them  has  in  it 
the  accent  of  true  conviction ;  and  there  is  a  whole 
world  of  difference  between  the  lowly  petition,  '  Show 
me  wherefore  Thou  contendest  with  me,'  and  the 
curt,  self-complacent  brushing  aside  of  God's  merciful 
threatenings  in  the  text.  The  last  thing  which  most 
of  us  think  of  as  the  cause  of  our  misfortunes  is  our- 
selves ;  and  we  resent  as  almost  an  insult  the  word, 
which  if  we  were  wise,  we  should  welcome  as  the 
crowning  proof  of  the  seeking  love  of  our  Father  in 
heaven.  We  are  more  obstinate  and  foolish  than 
Balaam,  who  persisted  in  his  purpose  when  the  angel 
with  the  drawn  sword  in  his  hand  would  have  barred 
his  way,  not  to  the  tree  of  life,  but  to  death.  The 
awful  mystery  that  a  human  will  can,  and  the  yet  sadder 
mystery  that  it  does,  set  itself  against  the  divine,  is 
never  more  unintelligible,  never  so  stupid,  and  never  so 
tragic  as  when  God  says,  •  Turn  ye,  turn  ye,  why  will 
ye  die  ?'  and  we  say,  'Why  need  I  die  ?  I  will  not  turn.' 

The  '  Wherefore?'  of  our  text  is  widely  asked  in  the 
present  day  as  an  expression  of  utter  bewilderment 
at  the  miseries  of  humanity,  both  in  the  wide  area  of 
this  disordered  world  and  in  the  narrower  field  of  in- 
dividual lives.    There  are  whole  schools  of  so-called 


vs.  12,14]  A  DIALOGUE  WITH  GOD  341 

political  and  social  thinkers  who  have  yet  to  learn 
that  the  one  thing  which  the  world  and  the  individual 
need  is  not  a  change  of  conditions  or  environment, 
but  redemption  from  sin.  Man's  sorrows  are  but  a 
symptom  of  his  disease,  and  he  is  no  more  to  be  healed 
by  tinkering  with  these  than  a  fever-stricken  patient 
can  be  restored  to  health  by  treating  the  blotches  on 
his  skin  which  tell  of  the  disease  that  courses  through 
his  veins. 

But  sometimes  the  question  is  more  than  an  ex- 
pression of  bewilderment ;  it  conceals  an  arraignment 
of  God's  justice,  or  even  a  denial  that  there  is  a  God  at 
all.  There  are  men  among  us  who  hesitate  not  to 
avow  that  the  miseries  of  the  world  have  rooted  out 
of  their  minds  a  belief  in  Him ;  and  who  point  to  all 
the  ills  under  which  humanity  staggers  as  conclusive 
against  the  ancient  faith  of  a  God  of  love.  They,  too, 
forget  that  that  love  is  righteousness,  and  that  if  there 
be  sin  in  the  world  and  God  above  it,  He  must  neces- 
sarily war  against  it  and  hate  it. 

Our  right  response  to  God's  merciful  threatenings  is 
to  ask  this  question  in  the  right  spirit.  We  are  not 
wise  if  we  turn  a  deaf  ear  to  His  warnings,  or  go 
on  in  a  headlong  course  which  He  by  His  providences 
declared  to  be  dangerous  and  fatal.  We  use  them  as 
wise  men  should,  only  if  our  '  Wherefore  ? '  is  asked  in 
order  to  learn  our  evil,  and  having  learned  it,  to  purge 
our  bosoms  of  the  perilous  stuff  by  confession  and  to 
seek  pardon  and  victory  in  Christ.  Then  we  shall 
*  know  the  secret  of  the  Lord '  which  is  '  with  them  that 
fear  Him  ' ;  and  the  mysteries  that  still  hang  over  our 
own  histories  and  the  world's  destiny  will  have  shining 
down  upon  them  the  steadfast  light  of  that  love  which 
seeks  to  make  men  blessed  by  making  them  good. 


THE  LAST  WORD  OF  PROPHECY 

'  Behold,  I  will  send  My  messenger,  and  he  shall  prepare  the  way  before  Me :  and 
the  Lord,  whom  ye  seek,  shall  suddenly  come  to  His  temple,  even  the  Messenger  of 
the  covenant,  whom  ye  delight  in  :  behold,  He  shall  come,  saith  the  Lord  of  Hosts. 
2.  But  who  may  abide  the  day  of  His  coming?  and  who  shall  stand  when  He 
appeareth?  for  He  is  like  a  reflner's  Are,  and  like  fullers'  soap :  3.  And  He  shall 
sit  as  a  refiner  and  purifier  of  silver  :  and  He  shall  purify  the  sons  of  Levi,  and 
purge  them  as  gold  and  silver,  that  they  may  offer  unto  the  Lord  an  offering  in 
righteousness.  4.  Then  shall  the  offering  of  Jiidah  and  Jerusalem  be  plea-.i.nt 
unto  the  Lord,  as  in  the  days  of  old,  and  as  in  former  years.  5.  And  I  will  come 
near  to  you  to  judgment ;  and  I  will  be  a  swift  Witness  against  the  sorcerers,  and 
against  the  adulterers,  and  against  false  swearers,  and  against  those  that  oppress 
the  hireling  in  his  wages,  the  widow,  and  the  fatherless,  and  that  turn  aside  the 
stranger  from  his  right,  and  fear  not  Me,  saith  the  Lord  of  Hosts.  6.  For  I  am  the 
Lord,  I  change  not;  therefore  ye  sons  of  Jacob  are  not  consumed.  7.  Even  fx-om 
the  days  of  your  fathers  ye  are  gone  away  from  mine  ordinances,  and  have  not 
kept  them.  Return  unto  Me,  and  I  will  return  unto  you,  saith  the  Lord  of  Hosts. 
But  ye  said.  Wherein  shall  we  return?  8.  Will  a  man  rob  God?  Yet  ye  have 
robbed  Me.    But  ye  say,  Wherein  have  we  robbed  Thee  ?    In  tithes  and  offerings. 

9.  Ye  are  cursed  with  a  curse:  for  ye  have  robbed  Me,  even  this  whole  nation, 

10.  Bring  ye  all  the  tithes  into  the  storehouse,  that  there  may  be  meat  in  Mine 
house,  and  prove  Me  now  herewith,  saith  the  Lord  of  Hosts,  if  I  will  not  open  you 
the  windows  of  heaven,  and  pour  you  out  a  blessing,  that  there  shall  not  be  room 
enough  to  receive  it.  11.  And  I  will  rebuke  the  devourer  for  your  sakes,  and 
he  shall  not  destroy  the  fruits  of  your  ground  ;  neither  shall  your  vine  cast  her 
fruit  before  the  time  in  the  field,  saith  the  Lord  of  Hosts.  12.  And  all  nations 
shall  call  you  blessed :  for  ye  shall  be  a  delightsome  land,  saith  the  Lord  of  Hosts.' 
— Malachi  iii.  1-12. 

Deep  obscurity  surrounds  the  person  of  this  last  of 
the  prophets.  It  is  questioned  whether  Malachi  is  a 
proper  name  at  all.  It  is  the  Hebrew  word  rendered 
in  verse  1  of  our  passage  '  My  messenger,'  and  this  has 
led  many  authorities  to  contend  that  the  prophecy  is 
in  fact  anonymous,  the  name  being  only  a  designation 
of  office.  Whether  this  is  so  or  not,  the  name,  if  it  is  a 
name,  is  all  that  we  know  about  him.  The  tenor  of  his 
prophecy  shows  that  he  lived  after  the  restoration  of 
the  Temple  and  its  worship,  and  the  sins  which  he 
castigates  are  substantially  those  with  which  Ezra  and 
Nehemiah  had  to  fight.  One  ancient  Jewish  authority 
asserts  that  he  was  Ezra;  but  the  statement  has  no 
confirmation,  and  if  it  had  been  correct,  we  should 
not  have  expected  that  such  an  author  would  have 


vs.  1-12]   LAST  WORD  OF  PROPHECY      843 

been  anonymous.  This  dim  figure,  then,  is  the  last  of 
the  mighty  line  of  prophets,  and  gives  strong  utter- 
ance to  the  '  hope  of  Israel ' !  One  clear  voice,  coming 
from  we  scarcely  know  whose  lips,  proclaims  for  the 
last  time,  '  He  comes !  He  comes  ! '  and  then  all  is  silence 
for  four  hundred  years.  Modern  critics,  indeed,  hold 
that  the  bulk  of  the  Psalter  is  of  later  date ;  but  that 
contention  has  much  to  do  before  it  can  be  regarded  as 
established. 

The  first  point  worthy  of  notice  in  this  passage, 
then,  is  the  concentration,  in  this  last  prophetic  utter- 
ance, of  that  element  of  forward-looking  expectancy 
which  marked  all  the  earlier  revelation.  From  the 
beginning,  the  selectest  spirits  in  Israel  had  set  their 
faces  and  pointed  their  fingers  to  a  great  future,  which 
gathered  distinctness  as  the  ages  rolled,  and  culmin- 
ated in  the  King  from  David's  line,  of  whom  many 
psalms  sung,  and  in  the  suffering  Servant  of  the 
Lord,  who  shines  out  from  the  pages  of  the  second 
part  of  Isaiah's  prophecy.  This  Messianic  hope  runs 
through  all  the  Old  Testament,  like  a  broadening  river. 
'  They  that  went  before  cried,  Hosanna !  Blessed  is  He 
that  Cometh.' 

That  hope  gives  unity  to  the  Old  Testament,  what- 
ever criticism  may  have  to  teach  about  the  process  of 
its  production.  The  most  important  thing  about  the 
book  is  that  one  purpose  informs  it  all;  and  the 
student  who  misses  the  truth  that  *the  testimony  of 
Jesus  is  the  spirit  of  prophecy'  has  a  less  accurate 
conception  of  the  meaning  and  inter-relations  of  the 
Old  Testament  than  the  unlearned  who  has  accepted 
that  great  truth.  We  should  be  willing  to  learn  all 
that  modern  scholarship  has  to  teach  about  the  course 
of  revelation.    But  we  should  take  care  that  the  new 


344  MALACHI  [ch.  hi. 

knowledge  does  not  darken  the  old  certainty  that  the 
prophets  '  testified  beforehand  of  the  sufferings  of 
Christ  and  of  the  glory  that  should  follow.'  Here,  at 
the  very  end,  stands  Malachi,  reiterating  the  assurance 
which  had  come  down  through  the  centuries.  The 
prophets,  as  it  were,  had  lit  a  beacon  which  flamed 
through  the  darkness.  Hand  after  hand  had  flung 
new  fuel  on  it  when  it  burned  low.  It  had  lighted 
up  many  a  stormy  night  of  exile  and  distress.  Now 
we  can  dimly  see  one  more,  the  last  of  his  order,  cast- 
ing his  brand  on  the  fire,  which  leaps  up  again;  and 
then  he  too  passes  into  the  darkness,  but  the  beacon 
burns  on. 

The  next  point  to  note  is  the  clear  prophecy  of  a 
forerunner.  '  My  messenger '  is  to  come,  and  to  '  pre- 
pare the  way  before  Me.'  Isaiah  had  heard  a  voice 
calling,  'Prepare  the  way  of  the  Lord,'  and  Malachi 
quotes  his  words,  and  ascribes  the  same  office  to  the 
'messenger.'  In  the  last  verses  of  his  prophecy  he 
calls  this  messenger  '  Elijah  the  prophet.'  Here,  then, 
we  have  a  remarkable  instance  of  a  historical  detail 
set  forth  in  prophecy.  The  coming  of  the  Lord  is  to 
be  immediately  preceded  by  the  appearance  of  a  pro- 
phet, whose  function  is  to  effect  a  moral  and  religious 
reformation,  which  shall  prepare  a  path  for  Him.  This 
is  no  vague  ideal,  but  definite  announcement  of  a 
definite  fact,  to  be  realised  in  a  historical  personality. 
How  came  this  half-anonymous  Jew,  four  hundred 
years  beforehand,  to  hit  upon  the  fact  that  the  next 
prophet  in  Israel  would  herald  the  immediate  coming 
of  the  Lord  ?  There  ought  to  be  but  one  answer 
possible. 

Another  point  to  note  is  the  peculiar  relation  be- 
tween Jehovah  and  Him  who  comes.    Emphatically 


vs.  1-12]  LAST  WORD  OF  PROPHECY       345 

and  broadly  it  is  declared  that  Jehovah  Himself  '  shall 
suddenly  come  to  His  temple ' ;  and  then  the  prophecy 
immediately  passes  on  to  speak  of  the  coming  of  '  the 
Messenger  of  the  covenant,'  and  dw^ells  for  a  time 
exclusively  on  his  vrork  of  purifying;  and  then  again 
it  glides,  v^ithout  conscious  breach  of  continuity  or 
mark  of  transition,  into,  '  And  /  v^^ill  come  near  to  you 
in  judgment.'  A  mysterious  relationship  of  oneness 
and  yet  distinctness  is  here  shadowed,  of  which  the 
solution  is  only  found  in  the  Christian  truth  that  the 
Word,  which  was  God,  and  was  in  the  beginning  with 
God,  became  flesh,  and  that  in  Him  Jehovah  in  very 
deed  tabernacled  among  men.  The  expression  '  the 
Messenger  (or  Angel)  of  the  covenant'  is  connected 
with  the  remarkable  representations  in  other  parts  of 
the  Old  Testament,  of  '  the  Angel  of  Jehovah,'  in  whom 
many  commentators  recognise  a  pre-incarnate  mani- 
festation of  the  eternal  Word.  That  'Angel'  had  re- 
deemed Israel  from  Egypt,  had  led  them  through  the 
desert,  had  been  the  '  Captain  of  the  Lord's  host.'  The 
name  of  Jehovah  was  '  in  Him.'  He  it  is  whose  coming 
is  here  prophesied,  and  in  His  coming  Jehovah  comes 
to  His  temple. 

We  next  note  the  aspect  of  the  coming  which  is 
prominent  here.  Not  the  kingly,  nor  the  redemptive, 
but  the  judicial,  is  uppermost.  With  keen  irony  the 
Prophet  contrasts  the  professed  eagerness  of  the  people 
for  the  appearance  of  Jehovah  and  their  shrinking 
terror  when  He  does  come.  He  is  '  the  Lord  whom  ye 
seek ' ;  ,the  Messenger  of  the  covenant  is  He  '  whom  ye 
delight  in.'  But  all  that  superficial  and  partially  in- 
sincere longing  will  turn  into  dread  and  unwillingness 
to  abide  His  scrutiny.  The  images  of  the  refiner's  fire 
and  the  fullers'  soap  imply  painful  processes,  of  which 


346  MALACHI  [ch.  iil 

the  intention  is  to  burn  out  the  dross  and  beat  out  the 
filth.  It  sounds  like  a  prolongation  of  Malachi's  voice 
when  John  the  Baptist  peals  out  his  herald  cry  of  one 
whose  '  fan  was  in  His  hand,'  and  who  should  plunge 
men  into  a  fiery  baptism,  and  consume  with  fire  that 
destroyed  what  would  not  submit  to  be  cast  into  the 
fire  that  cleansed.  Nor  should  we  forget  that  our 
Lord  has  said,  'For  judgment  am  I  come  into  the 
world.'  He  came  to  '  purify ' ;  but  if  men  would  not 
let  Him  do  what  He  came  for,  He  could  not  but  be 
their  bane  instead  of  their  blessing. 

The  stone  is  laid.  If  we  build  on  it,  it  is  a  sure 
foundation;  if  we  stumble  over  it,  we  are  broken. 
The  double  aspect  and  effect  of  the  gospel,  which  was 
meant  only  to  have  the  single  operation  of  blessing, 
are  clearly  set  forth  in  this  prophecy,  which  first 
promises  purging  from  sin,  so  that  not  only  the  '  sons 
of  Levi '  shall  offer  in  righteousness,  but  that  the 
'  offerings  of  Judah  and  Jerusalem  shall  be  pleasant,' 
and  then  passes  immediately  to  foretell  that  God  will 
come  in  judgment  and  witness  against  evil-doers. 
Judgment  is  the  shadow  of  salvation,  and  constantly 
attends  on  it.  Neither  Malachi  nor  the  Baptist  gives 
a  complete  view  of  Messiah's  work,  but  still  less  do 
they  give  an  erroneous  one ;  for  the  central  portion  of 
both  prophecies  is  His  purifying  energy  which  both 
liken  to  cleansing  fire. 

That  real  and  inward  cleansing  is  the  great  work  of 
Christ.  It  was  wrought  on  as  many  of  His  contem- 
poraries as  believed  on  Him,  and  for  such  as  did  not 
He  was  a  swift  Witness  against  them.  Nor  are  we  to 
forget  that  the  prophecy  is  not  exhausted  yet;  for 
there  remains  another  'day  of  His  coming'  for  judg- 
ment.   The  prophets  did  not  see  the  perspective  of  the 


vs.  1-12]  LAST  WORD  OF  PROPHECY      347 

future,  and  often  bring  together  events  widely  separ- 
ated in  time,  just  as,  to  a  spectator  on  a  mountain, 
distances  between  points  far  away  towards  the  horizon 
are  not  measurable.  We  have  to  allow  for  fore- 
shortening. 

This  blending  of  events  historically  widely  apart  is 
to  be  kept  in  view  in  interpreting  Malachi's  prediction 
that  the  coming  would  result  in  Judah's  and  Israel's 
offerings  being  'pleasant  unto  the  Lord  as  in  former 
years.'  That  prediction  is  not  yet  fulfilled,  whether 
we  regard  the  name  of  Israel  and  the  relation  ex- 
pressed in  it  as  having  passed  over  to  the  Christian 
Church,  or  whether  we  look  forward  to  that  bringing 
in  of  all  Israel  which  Paul  says  will  be  as  'life  from 
the  dead.'  But  by  slow  degrees  it  is  being  fulfilled, 
and  by  Christ  men  are  being  led  to  offer  up  spiritual 
sacrifices,  acceptable  to  God. 

The  more  directly  Messianic  part  of  this  prophecy 
is  closed  in  verse  6  by  a  great  saying,  which  at  once 
gives  the  reason  for  the  coming  and  for  its  severe 
aspect  of  witness  against  sin.  The  unchangeableness 
of  God,  which  is  declared  in  His  very  name,  guarantees 
the  continued  existence  of  Israel.  As  Paul  says  in 
regard  to  the  same  subject,  '  The  calling  of  God  is 
without  change  of  purpose'  (on  His  part).  But  it  is 
as  impossible  that  God  should  leave  them  to  their 
sins,  which  would  destroy  them,  as  that  He  should 
Himself  consume  them.  Therefore  He  will  surely 
come;  and  coming,  will  deliver  from  evil.  But  they 
who  refuse  to  be  so  delivered  will  forfeit  that  title 
and  the  pledge  of  preservation  which  it  implies. 

A  new  paragraph  begins  with  verse  7,  which  is  not 
closely  connected  with  the  promises  preceding.  It 
recurs  to  the  prevailing  tone  of  Malachi,  the  rebuke 


348  MALACHI  [ch.  m. 

of  negligence  in  attending  to  the  legal  obligations  of 
worship.  That  negligence  is  declared  to  be  a  reason 
for  God's  withdrawal  from  them.  But  the  'return,' 
which  is  promised  on  condition  of  their  renewed 
obedience,  can  scarcely  be  identified  with  the  coming 
just  foretold.  That  coming  was  to  bring  about  offer- 
ings of  righteousness  which  should  be  pleasant  to  the 
Lord.  This  section  (vs.  7-12)  promises  blessings  as 
results  of  such  offerings,  and  a  'return'  of  Jehovah 
to  His  people  contingent  upon  their  return  to  Him. 
If  the  two  sections  of  this  passage  are  taken  as  closely 
connected,  this  one  must  describe  the  consequences  of 
the  coming.  But,  more  probably,  this  accusation  of 
negligence  and  promise  of  blessing  on  a  change  of 
conduct  are  independent  of  the  previous  verses.  We, 
however,  may  fairly  take  them  as  exhibiting  the 
obligations  of  those  who  have  received  that  great 
gift  of  purifying  from  Jesus  Christ,  and  are  thereby 
consecrated  as  His  priests. 

The  key-word  of  the  Christian  life  is  'sacrifice' — 
surrender,  and  that  to  God.  That  is  to  be  stamped 
on  the  inmost  selves,  and  by  the  act  of  the  will,  on 
the  body  as  well.  '  Yield  yourselves  to  God,  and  your 
members  as  instruments  of  righteousness  to  Him.'  It 
is  to  be  written  on  possessions.  Malachi  necessarily 
keeps  within  the  limits  of  the  sacrificial  system,  but 
his  impetuous  eloquence  hits  us  no  less.  It  is  still 
possible  to  'rob  God.'  We  do  so  when  we  keep  any- 
thing as  our  own,  and  use  it  at  our  own  will,  for  our 
own  purposes.  Only  when  we  recognise  His  owner- 
ship of  ourselves,  and  consequently  of  all  that  we  call 
•  ours,'  do  we  give  Him  His  due.  All  the  slave's  chattels 
belong  to  the  owner  to  whom  he  belongs.  Such 
thorough-going  surrender  is  the  secret  of  thorough 


vs.  1-12]     THE  UNCHANGING  LORD         849 

possession.    The  true  way  to  enjoy  worldly  goods  is 
to  give  them  to  God. 

The  lattices  of  heaven  are  opened,  not  to  pour  down, 
as  of  old,  fiery  destruction,  but  to  make  way  for  the 
gentle  descent  of  God's  blessing,  which  will  more  than 
fill  every  vessel  set  to  receive  it.  This  is  the  universal 
law,  not  always  fulfilled  in  increase  of  outward  goods, 
but  in  the  better  riches  of  communion  and  of  larger 
possession  in  God  Himself.  He  suffers  no  man  to  be 
His  creditor,  but  more  than  returns  our  gifts,  as 
legends  tell  of  some  peasant  who  brought  his  king  a 
poor  tribute  of  fruits  of  his  fields,  and  went  away  from 
the  presence-chamber  with  a  jewel  in  his  hand. 


THE  UNCHANGING  LORD 

'I  am  the  Lord,  I  change  not ;  therefore  ye  sons  of  Jacob  are  not  consumed.' 

Malachi  iii.  6. 

The  scriptural  revelations  of  the  divine  Name  are 
always  the  basis  of  intensely  practical  admonition. 
The  Bible  does  not  think  it  worth  while  to  proclaim 
the  Name  of  God  without  building  on  the  proclama- 
tion promises  or  commandments.  There  is  no  'mere 
theology '  in  Scripture  ;  and  it  does  not  speak  of  '  attri- 
butes,' nor  give  dry  abstractions  of  infinitude,  eternity, 
omniscience,  unchangeableness,  but  lays  stress  on  the 
personality  of  God,  which  is  so  apt  to  escape  us  in 
these  abstract  conceptions,  and  thus  teaches  us  to 
think  of  this  personal  God  our  Father,  as  infinite, 
eternal,  knowing  all  things,  and  never  changing. 
There  is  all  the  difference  in  our  attitude  towards 
the  very  same  truth  if  we  think  of  the  unchange- 


350  MALACHI  [ch.  hi. 

ableness  of  God,  or  if  we  think  that  our  Father  God 
is  unchangeable.  In  our  text  the  thought  of  Him 
as  unchanging  comes  into  view  as  the  foundation  of 
the  continuance  of  the  unfaithful  sons  of  Jacob  in 
their  privileges  and  in  their  very  lives.  'I  am  the 
Lord,'  Jehovah,  the  Self-existent,  the  Eternal  whose 
being  is  not  under  the  limitations  of  succession  and 
time.  '  Because  I  am  Jehovah,  I  change  not ' ;  and 
because  Jehovah  changes  not,  therefore  our  finite  and 
mortal  selves  abide,  and  our  infinite  and  sinful  selves 
are  still  the  objects  of  His  steadfast  love. 

Let  us  consider,  first,  the  unchangeable  God,  and 
second,  the  unchanging  God  as  the  foundation  of  our 
changeful  lives. 

I.  The  unchangeable  God. 

In  the  great  covenant-name  Jehovah  there  is  revealed 
an  existence  which  reverses  all  that  we  know  of  finite 
and  progressive  being,  or  finite  and  mortal  being,  or 
finite  and  variable  nature.  With  us  there  are  muta- 
tions arising  from  physical  nature.  The  material  must 
needs  be  subject  to  laws  of  growth  and  decadence. 
Our  spiritual  nature  is  subject  to  changes  arising  from 
the  advancement  in  knowledge.  Our  moral  nature  is 
subject  to  fluctuations ;  circumstances  play  upon  us, 
and  'nothing  continueth  in  one  stay.'  Change  is  the 
condition  of  life.  It  means  growth  and  happiness; 
it  belongs  to  the  perfection  of  creatures.  But  the 
unchangeableness  of  God  is  the  negation  of  all  imper- 
fection, it  is  the  negation  of  all  dependence  on  circum- 
stances, it  is  the  negation  of  all  possibility  of  decay  or 
exhaustion,  it  is  the  negation  of  all  caprice.  It  is  the 
assurance  that  His  is  an  underived,  self-dependent 
being,  and  that  with  Him  is  the  fountain  of  light :  it 
is  the  assurance  that,  raised  above  the  limits  of  time 


V.6]  THE  UNCHANGING  LORD  851 

and  the  succession  of  events,  He  is  in  the  eternal 
present,  where  all  things  that  were  and  are,  and  are 
to  come,  stand  naked  and  open.  It  is  the  assurance 
that  the  calm  might  of  His  eternal  will  acts,  not  in 
spasms  of  successive  volitions  preceded  by  a  period  of 
indecision  and  equilibrium  between  contending  motives, 
but  is  one  continuous  uniform  energy,  never  beginning, 
never  bending,  never  ending ;  that  the  purpose  of  His 
will  is  'the  eternal  purpose  which  He  hath  purposed 
in  Himself.'  It  is  the  assurance  that  the  clear  vision  of 
His  infinite  knowledge,  from  the  heat  of  which  nothing 
is  hid,  has  no  stages  of  advancement,  and  no  events 
lying  nebulous  in  a  dim  horizon  by  reason  of  distance, 
or  growing  in  clearness  as  they  draw  nearer,  but  which 
pierces  the  mists  of  futurity  and  the  veils  of  the  past 
and  the  infinities  of  the  present,  and  *  from  the  begin- 
ning to  the  end  knoweth  all  things.'  It  is  the  assurance 
that  the  mighty  stream  of  love  from  the  heart  of  God 
is  not  contingent  on  the  variations  of  our  character 
and  the  fluctuations  of  our  poor  hearts,  but  rises  from 
His  deep  well,  and  flows  on  for  ever,  'the  river  of  God' 
which  '  is  full  of  water.'  It  is  the  assurance  that  round 
all  the  majesty  and  the  mercy  which  He  has  revealed 
for  our  adoration  and  our  trust  there  is  the  consecra- 
tion of  permanence,  that  we  might  have  a  rock  on 
which  to  build  and  never  be  confounded.  Is  there 
anywhere  in  the  past  an  act  of  His  power,  a  word  of 
His  lip,  a  revelation  of  His  heart  which  has  been  a 
strength  or  a  joy  or  a  light  to  any  man  ?  It  is  valid 
for  me,  and  is  intended  for  my  use.  '  He  fainteth  not, 
nor  is  weary.'  The  bush  burns  and  is  not  consumed. 
'  I  will  not  alter  the  thing  that  has  gone  out  of  my 
lips.'  'By  two  immutable  things  in  which  it  is  im- 
possible for  God  to  lie,  we  have  strong  consolation.' 


352  MALACHI  [ch.  iii. 

II,  The  unchanging  God  as  the  foundation  of  our 
changeful  lives. 

In  the  most  literal  sense  our  text  is  true.  Because 
He  lives  we  live  also.  He  is  the  same  for  ever,  there- 
fore we  are  not  consumed.  The  foundation  of  our 
being  lies  beyond  and  beneath  all  the  mutable  things 
from  which  we  are  tempted  to  believe  that  we  draw  our 
lives,  and  is  in  God.  The  true  lesson  to  be  drawn  from 
the  mutable  phenomena  of  earth  is — heaven.  The  many 
links  in  the  chain  must  have  a  staple.  Reason  requires 
that  behind  all  the  fleeting  shall  be  the  permanent. 
There  must  be  a  basis  which  does  not  partake  of  change. 
The  lesson  from  all  the  mutable  creation  is  the  im- 
mutable God. 

Since  God  changes  not,  the  life  of  our  spirits  is  not  at 
the  mercy  of  changing  events.  We  look  back  on  a  life- 
time of  changing  scenes  through  which  we  have  passed, 
and  forward  to  a  similar  succession,  and  this  muta- 
bility is  sad  to  many  of  us,  and  in  some  aspects  sad  to 
all,  so  powerless  we  are  to  fix  and  arrest  any  of  our 
blessings.  Which  we  shall  keep  we  know  not ;  we  only 
know  that,  as  certainly  as  buds  and  blossoms  of  spring 
drop,  and  the  fervid  summer  darkens  to  November  fogs 
and  December  frosts,  so  certainly  we  shall  have  to  part 
with  much  in  our  passage  through  life.  But  if  we  let 
God  speak  to  us,  the  necessary  changes  that  come  to 
us  will  not  be  harmful  but  blessed,  for  the  lesson  that 
the  mutability  of  the  mutual  is  meant  to  impress  upon 
us  is,  the  permanency  of  the  divine,  and  our  depend- 
ence, not  on  them,  but  on  Him.  We  may  look  upon  all 
the  world  of  time  and  chance  and  think  that  He  who 
Himself  is  unchanging  changeth  all.  The  eye  of  the 
tempest  is  a  point  of  rest.  The  point  in  the  heavens 
towards  which,  according  to  some  astronomers,  the 


V.  6]  THE  UNCHANGING  LORD  853 

whole  of  the  solar  system  is  drifting,  is  a  fixed  point.  If 
we  depend  on  Him,  then  change  is  not  all  sad  ;  it  cannot 
take  God  away,  but  it  may  bring  us  nearer  to  Him. 
We  cannot  be  desolate  as  long  as  we  have  Him.  We 
know  not  what  shall  be  on  the  morrow.  Be  it  so ;  it 
will  be  God's  to-morrow.  When  the  leaves  drop  we 
can  see  the  rock  on  which  the  trees  grow ;  and  when 
changes  strip  the  world  for  us  of  some  of  its  waving 
beauty  and  leafy  shade,  we  may  discern  more  clearly 
the  firm  foundation  on  which  our  hopes  rest.  All  else 
changes.  Be  it  so ;  that  will  not  kill  us,  nor  leave  us 
utterly  forlorn  as  long  as  we  hear  the  voice  which  says, 
*  I  am  the  Lord ;  I  change  not ;  therefore  ye  are  not 
consumed.' 

God's  purposes  and  promises  change  not,  therefore  our 
faith  may  rest  on  Him,  notwithstanding  our  own  sins 
and  fluctuations.  It  is  this  aspect  of  the  divine  immuta- 
bility which  is  the  thought  of  our  text.  God  does  not 
turn  from  His  love,  nor  cancel  His  promises,  nor  alter 
His  purposes  of  mercy  because  of  our  sins.  If  God 
could  have  changed,  the  godless  forgetfulness  of,  and 
departure  from,  Him  of  '  the  Sons  of  Jacob '  would  have 
driven  Him  to  abandon  His  purposes ;  but  they  still 
live — living  evidences  of  His  longsuffering.  And  in 
that  preservation  of  them  God  would  have  them  see  the 
basis  of  hope  for  the  future.  So  this  is  the  confidence 
w^ith  which  we  should  cheer  ourselves  when  we  look  upon 
the  past,  and  when  we  anticipate  the  future.  The  sins 
that  have  been  in  our  past  have  deserved  that  we  should 
have  been  swept  away,  but  we  are  here  still.  Why  are 
we  ?  Why  do  we  yet  live  ?  Because  we  have  to  do 
with  an  unchanging  love,  with  a  faithfulness  that 
never  departs  from  its  word,  with  a  purpose  of  bless- 
ing that  will  not  be  turned  aside.    So  let  us  look  back 

z 


354  MALACHI  [ch.  m. 

with  this  thought  and  be  thankful;  let  us  look  forward 
with  it  and  be  of  good  cheer.  Trust  yourself,  weak  and 
sinful  as  you  are,  to  that  unchanging  love.  The  future 
will  have  in  it  faults  and  failures,  sins  and  shortcomings, 
but  rise  from  yourself  to  God.  Look  beyond  the  light 
and  shade  of  your  own  characters,  or  of  earthly  events 
to  the  central  light,  where  there  is  no  glimmering 
twilight,  no  night,  'no  variableness  nor  shadow  of 
turning.'  Let  us  live  in  God,  and  be  strong  in  hope. 
Forward,  not  backward,  let  us  look  and  strive ;  so  our 
souls,  fixed  and  steadied  by  faith  in  Him,  will  become 
in  a  manner  partakers  of  His  unchangeableness ;  and 
we  too  in  our  degree  will  be  able  to  say,  *  The  Lord  is 
at  my  side  ;  I  shall  not  be  moved.' 


A  DIALOGUE  WITH  GOD 

'  Return  unto  Me,  and  I  will  return  unto  you,  saith  the  Lord  of  Hosts.    But  ye 
say,  Wherein  shall  we  return  f '— Malachi  iii.  7  (R.V.). 

In  previous  sermons  we  have  considered  God's  indict- 
ment of  man's  sin  met  by  man's  plea  of  •  not  guilty,'  and 
God's  threatenings  brushed  aside  by  man'i  question. 
Here  we  have  the  climax  o^  self-revealing  and  patient 
love  in  God's  wooing  voice  to  draw  the  wanderer  back, 
met  by  man's  refusing  answer.  These  three  divine 
utterances  taken  together  cover  the  whole  ground  of 
His  speech  to  us ;  and,  alas !  these  three  human  utter- 
ances but  too  truly  represent  for  the  moat  part  our 
answers  to  Him. 

I.  God's  invitation  to  His  wandering  child. 

The  gracious  invitation  of  our  text  presupposes  a 
state  of  departure.  The  child  who  is  tenderly  recalled 
has  first  gone  away.    There  has  been  a  breach  of  love. 


v.r]  A  DIALOGUE  WITH  GOD  855 

Dependence  has  been  unwelcome,  and  cast  off  with  the 
vain  hope  of  a  larger  freedom  in  the  far-off  land ;  and 
this  is  the  true  charge  against  us.  It  is  not  so  much 
individual  acts  of  sin  but  the  going  away  in  heart  and 
spirit  from  our  Father  God  which  describes  the  inmost 
essence  of  our  true  condition,  and  is  itself  the  source  of 
all  our  acts  of  sin.  Conscience  confirms  the  description. 
We  know  that  we  have  departed  from  Him  in  mind, 
having  wasted  our  thoughts  on  many  things  and  not 
having  had  Him  in  the  multitude  of  them  in  us.  We 
have  departed  from  Him  in  heart,  having  squandered 
our  love  and  dissipated  our  desires  on  many  objects,  and 
sought  in  the  multiplicity  of  many  pearls — some  of  them 
only  paste — a  substitute  for  the  all-sufficient  simplicity 
of  the  One  of  great  price.  We  have  departed  from  Him 
in  will,  having  reared  up  puny  inclinations  and  fleeting 
passions  against  His  calm  and  eternal  purpose,  and  so 
bringing  about  the  shock  of  a  collision  as  destructive 
to  us  as  when  a  torpedo-boat  crashes  in  the  dark  against 
a  battle-ship,  and,  cut  in  two,  sinks. 

The  gracious  invitation  of  our  text  follows,  'I  am 
the  Lord,  I  change  not ;  therefore  ye  sons  of  Jacob  are 
not  consumed.'  Threatenings,  and  the  execution  of 
these  in  acts  of  judgment,  are  no  indication  of  a  change 
in  the  loving  heart  of  God ;  and  because  it  is  the  same, 
however  we  have  sinned  against  it  and  departed  from 
it,  there  is  ever  an  invitation  and  a  welcome.  We  may 
depart  from  Him,  but  He  never  departs  from  us.  Nor 
does  He  wait  for  us  to  originate  the  movement  of 
return,  but  He  invites  us  back.  By  all  His  words  in 
His  threatenings  and  in  His  commandments,  as  in  the 
acts  of  His  providence,  we  can  hear  His  call  to  return. 
The  fathers  of  our  flesh  never  cease  to  long  for  their 
prodigal  child's  return ;  and  their  patient  persistence  o£ 


856  MALACHI  [ch.  in. 

hope  is  but  brief  and  broken  when  contrasted  with  the 
infinite  longsuffering  of  the  Father  of  spirits.  We 
have  heard  of  a  mother  who  for  long  empty  years  has 
nightly  set  a  candle  in  her  cottage  window  to  guide  her 
wandering  boy  back  to  her  heart ;  and  God  has  bade  us 
think  more  loftily  of  the  unchangeableness  of  His  love 
than  that  of  a  woman  who  may  forget,  that  she  should 
not  have  compassion  upon  the  son  of  her  womb. 

II.  Man's  answer  to  God's  invitation. 

It  is  a  refusal  which  is  half- veiled  and  none  the  less 
real.  There  is  no  unwillingness  to  obey  professed,  but 
it  is  concealed  under  a  mask  of  desiring  a  little  more 
light  as  to  how  a  return  is  to  be  accomplished.  There 
are  not  many  of  us  who  are  rooted  enough  in  evil  as  to 
be  able  to  blurt  out  a  curt  '  I  will  not '  in  answer  to  His 
call.  Conscience  often  bars  the  way  to  such  a  plain  and 
unmannerly  reply ;  but  there  are  many  who  try  to  cheat 
God,  and  who  do  to  some  extent  cheat  themselves,  by 
professing  ignorance  of  the  way  which  would  lead  them 
to  His  heart.  Some  of  us  have  learned  only  too  well 
to  raise  questions  about  the  method  of  salvation  instead 
of  accepting  it,  and  to  dabble  in  theology  instead  of 
making  sure  work  of  return.  Some  of  us  would  fain 
substitute  a  host  of  isolated  actions,  or  apparent  moral 
or  religious  observance,  for  the  return  of  will  and  heart 
to  God;  and  all  who  in  their  consciences  answer  God's 
call  by  saying,  'Wherein  shall  we  retrrn?'  with  such  a 
meaning  are  playing  tricks  with  themselves,  and  trying 
to  hoodwink  God. 

But  the  question  of  our  text  has  often  a  nobler 
origin,  and  comes  from  the  depths  of  a  troubled  heart. 
Not  seldom  does  God's  loving  invitation  rouse  the  dor- 
mant conscience  to  the  sense  of  sin.  The  man,  lying 
broken  at  the  foot  of  the  cliff   down  which  he  has 


V.7]  'STOUT  WORDS*  357 

fallen,  and  seeing  the  brightness  of  God  far  above,  has 
his  heart  racked  with  the  question  :  How  am  I,  with 
lame  limbs,  to  struggle  back  to  the  heights  above? 
'  How  shall  man  be  just  with  God  ? '  All  the  religions 
of  the  world,  with  their  offerings  and  penances  and 
weary  toils,  are  vain  attempts  to  make  a  way  back 
to  the  God  from  whom  men  have  wandered,  and  that 
question,  'Wherein  shall  we  return?'  is  really  the 
meaning  of  the  world's  vain  seeking  and  profitless 
effort. 

God  has  answered  man's  question ;  for  Christ  is  at 
once  the  way  back  to  God,  and  the  motive  which 
draws  us  to  walk  in  it.  He  draws  us  back  by  the  mag- 
netism of  His  love  and  sacrifice.  We  return  to  God 
when  we  cling  to  Jesus.  He  is  the  highest,  the  tenderest 
utterance  of  the  divine  voice ;  and  when  we  yield  to  His 
invitation  to  Himself  we  return  to  God.  He  calls  to 
each  of  us,  '  Come  unto  Me,  and  I  will  give  you  rest.' 
What  can  we  reply  but,  *  I  come ;  let  me  never  wander 
from  Thee'? 


•STOUT  WORDS,'  AND  THEIR  CONFUTATION 

'  Your  words  have  been  stent  against  Me,  saith  the  Lord :  yet  ye  say,  What  have 
we  spoken  so  much  against  Thee  ?  W.  Ye  have  said,  It  is  vain  to  serve  God ;  and 
what  profit  is  it  that  we  have  kept  His  ordinance,  and  that  we  have  walked 
mournfully  before  the  Lord  of  Hosts  ?  15.  And  now  we  call  the  proud  happy ;  yea, 
they  that  work  wickedness  are  set  up ;  yea,  they  that  tempt  God  are  even  delivered. 
16.  Then  they  that  feared  the  Lord  spake  often  one  to  another :  and  the  Lord 
hearkened,  and  heard  it ;  and  a  book  of  remembrance  was  written  before  Him  for 
them  that  feared  the  Lord,  and  that  thought  upon  His  name.  17.  And  they  shall  be 
Mine,  saith  the  Lord  of  Hosts,  in  that  day  when  I  make  up  My  jewels  ;  and  I  will 
spare  them,  as  a  man  spareth  his  own  son  that  serveth  him.  18.  Then  shall  ye  re- 
turn, and  discern  between  the  righteous  and  the  wicked ;  between  him  that  serveth 
God  and  him  that  serveth  Him  not.  iv.  1.  For,  behold,  the  day  cometh  that  shall  burn 
as  an  oven ;  and  all  the  proud,  yea,  and  all  that  do  wickedly,  shall  be  stubble :  and 
the  day  that  cometh  shull  burn  them  up,  saith  the  Lord  of  Hosts,  that  it  shall  leave 
them  neither  root  nor  branch.  2.  But  unto  you  that  fear  My  Name  shall  the  sun  of 
righteousness  arise  with  healing  in  his  wings ;  and  ye  shall  go  forth,  and  grow  up 


358  MALACHI  [chs.  iii.-iv. 

as  calres  of  the  stall.  3.  And  ye  shall  tread  down  the  wicked ;  for  they  shall  be 
ashes  under  the  soles  of  your  feet,  in  the  day  that  I  shall  do  this,  saith  the  Lord  of 
Hosts.  4.  Remember  ye  the  law  of  Moses  My  servant,  which  I  commanded  unto 
him  in  Horeb  for  all  Israel,  with  the  statutes  and  judgments.  6.  Behold,  I  will 
send  you  Elijah  the  prophet  before  the  coming  of  the  great  and  dreadful  day  of  the 
Lord  :  6.  And  he  shall  turn  the  heart  of  the  fathers  to  the  children,  and  the  heart 
of  the  children  to  their  fathers,  lest  I  come  and  smito  the  earth  with  a  curge.' — 
Malachi  iii.  13-18 ;  It.  1-6. 

This  passage  falls  into  three  parts, — the  *  stout  words' 
against  God  which  the  Prophet  sets  himself  to  confute 
(verses  13-15) ;  the  prophecy  of  the  day  which  will  show 
their  falsehood  (verse  16  to  iv.  3) ;  and  the  closing  ex- 
hortation and  prediction  (iv.  4-6). 

I.  The  returning  exiles  had  not  had  the  prosperity 
which  they  had  hoped.  So  many  of  them,  even  of 
those  who  had  served  God,  began  to  let  doubts  darken 
their  trust,  and  to  listen  to  the  whispers  of  their  own 
hearts,  reinforced  by  the  mutterings  of  others,  and  to 
ask  :  •  What  is  the  use  of  religion  ?  Does  it  make  any 
difference  to  a  man's  condition  ? '  Here  had  they  been 
keeping  God's  charge,  and  going  in  black  garments 
'  before  the  Lord,'  in  token  of  penitence,  and  no  good 
had  come  to  them,  while  arrogant  neglect  of  His  com- 
mandments did  not  seem  to  hinder  happiness,  and 
•they  that  work  wickedness  are  built  up.'  Sinful 
lives  appeared  to  have  a  firm  foundation,  and  to  rise 
high  and  palace-like,  while  righteous  ones  were  like 
huts.     Goodness  seemed  to  spell  ruin. 

What  was  wrong  in  these  'stout  words'?  It  was 
wrong  to  attach  such  worth  to  external  acts  of  devo- 
tion, as  if  these  were  deserving  of  reward.  It  was 
wrong  to  suspend  the  duty  of  worship  on  the  pros- 
perity resulting  from  it,  and  to  seek  'profit'  from 
'  keeping  his  charge.'  Such  religion  was  shallow  and 
selfish,  and  had  the  evils  of  the  later  Pharisaism  in 
germ  in  it.  It  was  wrong  to  yield  to  the  doubts  which 
the  apparently  unequal  distribution  of  worldly  proa- 


vs.  13  ;  iv.  6]  *  STOUT  WORDS  *  359 

perity  stirred  in  their  hearts.  But  the  doubts  them- 
selves v«^ere  almost  certain  to  press  on  Old  Testament 
believers,  as  vrell  as  on  Old  Testament  scoffers, 
especially  under  the  circumstances  of  Malachi's  time. 
The  fuller  light  of  Christianity  has  eased  their  pres- 
sure, but  not  removed  it,  and  w^e  have  all  had  to  face 
them,  both  when  our  ov^n  hearts  have  ached  with  sorrow 
and  when  pondering  on  the  perplexities  of  this  con- 
fused world.  We  look  around,  and,  like  the  psalmist, 
see  '  the  prosperity  of  the  wicked,'  and,  like  him,  have 
to  confess  that  our  '  steps  had  wellnigh  slipped '  at  the 
sight.  The  old,  old  question  is  ever  starting  up.  *  Doth 
God  know  ? '  The  mystery  of  suffering  and  the  mystery 
of  its  distribution,  the  apparent  utter  want  of  con- 
nection between  righteousness  and  wellbeing,  are  still 
formidable  difficulties  in  the  way  of  believing  in  a 
loving,  all-knowing,  and  all-powerful  God,  and  are 
stock  arguments  of  the  unbeliever  and  perplexities  of 
humble  faith.  Never  to  have  felt  the  force  of  the 
difficulty  is  not  so  much  the  sign  of  steadfast  faith 
as  of  scant  reflection.  To  yield  to  it,  and  still  more, 
to  let  it  drive  us  to  cast  religion  aside,  is  not  merely 
folly,  but  sin.     So  thinks  Malachi. 

II.  To  the  stout  words  of  the  doubters  is  opposed 
the  conversation  of  the  godly.  *  Then  they  that  feared 
the  Lord  spake  one  with  another,'  nourishing  their  faith 
by  believing  speech  with  like-minded.  The  more  the 
truths  by  which  we  believe  are  contradicted,  the  more 
should  we  commune  with  fellow-believers.  Attempts 
to  rob  us  should  make  us  hold  our  treasure  the  faster. 
Bold  avowal  of  the  faith  is  especially  called  for  when 
many  potent  voices  deny  it.  And,  whoever  does  not 
hear,  God  hears.  Faithful  words  may  seem  lost,  but 
they  and  every  faithful  act  are  written  in  His  remem- 


360  MALACHI  [chs.  iii.-iv. 

brance,  and  will  be  recompensed  one  day.  If  our 
names  and  acts  are  written  there,  we  may  well  be  con- 
tent to  accept  scanty  measures  of  earthly  good,  and  not 
be  '  envious  of  the  foolish '  in  their  prosperity. 

Malachi's  answer  to  the  doubters  leaves  all  other 
considerations  which  might  remove  the  difficulty  un- 
mentioned,  and  fixes  on  the  one,  the  prophecy  of  a 
future  which  will  show  that  it  is  not  all  the  same 
whether  a  man  is  good  or  bad.  It  was  said  of  an 
English  statesman  that  he  called  a  new  world  into 
existence  to  redress  the  balance  of  the  old,  and  that  is 
what  the  Prophet  does.  Christianity  has  taught  us 
many  other  ways  of  meeting  the  doubters'  difficulty, 
but  the  sheet  anchor  of  faith  in  that  storm  is  the  un- 
conquerable assurance  that  a  day  comes  when  the 
righteousness  of  providence  will  be  vindicated,  and  the 
eternal  difference  between  good  and  evil  manifested  in 
the  fates  of  men.  The  Prophet  is  declaring  what  will  be 
a  fact  one  day,  but  he  does  not  know  when.  Probably 
he  never  asked  himself  whether  '  the  day  of  the  Lord ' 
was  near  or  far  off,  to  dawn  on  earth  or  to  lie  beyond 
mortal  life.  But  this  he  knew — that  God  was  righteous, 
and  that  sometime  and  somewhere  character  would 
settle  destiny,  and  even  outwardly  it  would  be  good 
to  be  good.  He  first  declares  this  conviction  in  general 
terms,  and  then  passes  on  to  a  magnificent  and  terrible 
picture  of  that  great  day. 

The  promise,  which  lay  at  the  foundation  of  Israel's 
national  existence,  included  the  recognition  of  it  as  •  a 
peculiar  treasure  unto  Me  above  all  people,'  and  Malachi 
looks  forward  to  that  day  as  the  epoch  when  God  will 
show  by  His  acts  how  precious  the  righteous  are  in  His 
sight.  Not  the  whole  Israel,  but  the  righteous  among 
them,  are  the  heirs  of  the  old  promise.    It  is  an  antici- 


vs.  13 :  iv.  6]         «  STOUT  WORDS  '  861 

pation  of  the  teaching  that  'they  are  not  all  Israel, 
which  are  of  Israel.'  And  it  bids  us  look  for  the  fulfil- 
ment of  every  promise  of  God's  to  that  great  day  of 
the  Lord  which  lies  still  before  us  all,  when  the  gulf 
between  the  righteous  and  the  wicked  shall  be  solemnly 
visible,  wide,  and  profound.  There  have  been  many 
*  days  which  I  make '  in  the  world's  history,  and  in  a 
measure  each  of  them  has  re-established  the  apparently 
tottering  truth  that  there  is  a  God  who  judgeth  in  the 
earth,  but  the  day  of  days  is  yet  to  come. 

No  grander  vision  of  judgment  exists  than  Malachi's 
picture  of  '  the  day,'  lurid,  on  the  one  hand,  with  the 
fierce  flame,  before  which  the  wicked  are  as  stubble 
that  crackles  for  a  moment  and  then  is  grey  ashes, 
or  as  a  tree  in  a  forest  fire,  which  stands  for  a  little 
while,  a  pillar  of  flame,  and  then  falls  with  a  crash, 
shaking  the  woods ;  and  on  the  otherhand,  radiant 
with  the  early  beams  of  healing  sunshine,  in  whose 
sweet  morning  light  the  cattle,  let  out  from  their  pent- 
up  stalls,  gambol  in  glee.  But  let  us  not  forget  while 
we  admire  the  noble  poetry  of  its  form  that  this  is 
God's  oracle,  nor  that  we  have  each  to  settle  for  our- 
selves whether  that  day  shall  be  for  us  a  furnace  to 
destroy  or  a  sun  to  cheer  and  enlighten. 

We  can  only  note  in  a  sentence  the  recurrence  in 
verse  1  of  the  phrases  *  the  proud '  and  they  '  that  work 
wickedness,'  from  verse  15  of  chapter  iii.  The  end  of 
those  whom  the  world  called  happy,  and  who  seemed 
stable  and  elevated,  is  to  be  as  stubble  before  the  fire. 
We  must  also  point  out  that  *  the  sun  of  righteousness ' 
means  the  sun  which  is  righteousness,  and  is  not  a  desig- 
nation of  the  Messiah.  Nor  can  we  dwell  on  the  picture 
of  the  righteous  treading  down  the  wicked,  which  seems 
to  prolong  the  previous  metaphor  of  the  leaping  young 


362  MALACHI  [ohs.  iii.-it. 

cattle.     Then  shall  •  the  upright  have  dominion  over 
them  in  the  morning.' 

III.  The  final  exhortation  and  promise  point  back- 
wards and  forwards,  summing  up  duty  in  obedience  to 
the  law,  and  fixing  hope  on  a  future  reappearance  of 
the  leader  of  the  prophets.  Moses  and  Elijah  are  the 
two  giant  figures  which  dominate  the  history  of  Israel. 
Law  and  prophecy  are  the  two  forms  in  which  God 
spoke  to  the  fathers.  The  former  is  of  perpetual 
obligation,  the  latter  will  flash  up  again  in  power  on 
the  threshold  of  the  day.  Jesus  has  interpreted  this 
closing  word  for  us.  John  came  *in  the  spirit  and 
power  of  Elijah/  and  the  purpose  of  his  coming  was 
to  'turn the  hearts  of  the  fathers  to  the  children'  (Luke 
i.  16,  17) ;  that  is,  to  bring  back  the  devout  dispositions 
of  the  patriarchs  to  the  existing  generations,  and  so  to 
bring  the  'hearts  of  the  children  to  their  fathers,'  as 
united  with  them  in  devout  obedience.  If  John's 
mission  had  succeeded,  the  '  curse '  which  smote  Israel 
would  have  been  stayed.  God  has  done  all  that  He 
can  do  to  keep  us  from  being  consumed  by  the  fire  of 
that  day.  The  Incarnation,  Life,  and  Death  of  Jesus 
Christ  made  a  day  of  the  Lord  which  has  the  twofold 
character  of  that  in  Malachi's  vision,  for  He  is  a '  savour 
of  life  unto  life '  or  '  of  death  unto  death,'  and  must  be 
one  or  other  to  us.  But  another  day  of  the  Lord  is 
still  to  come,  and  for  each  of  us  it  will  come  burning  as 
a  furnace  or  bright  as  sunrise.  Then  the  universe  shall 
'discern  between  the  righteous  and  the  wicked,  between 
him  that  serveth  God  and  him  that  serveth  Him  not.' 


THE  LAST  WORDS  OF  THE  OLD  AND 

NEW  TESTAMENTS 

'  Lest  I  come  and  smite  the  earth  with  a  curse.'— Malachi  iv.  6. 
'The  grace  of  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ  be  with  you  all.    Amen.'— Rkvelation 
xxii.  21. 

It  is  of  course  only  an  accident  that  these  words  close 
the  Old  and  the  New  Testaments.  In  the  Hebrew  Bible 
Malachi's  prophecies  do  not  stand  at  the  end ;  but  he 
w^as  the  last  of  the  Old  Testament  prophets,  and  after 
him  there  were  'four  centuries  of  silence.'  We  seem 
to  hear  in  his  words  the  dying  echoes  of  the  rolling 
thunders  of  Sinai.  They  gather  up  the  whole  burden 
of  the  Law  and  of  the  prophets ;  of  the  former  in  their 
declaration  of  a  coming  retribution,  of  the  latter  in 
the  hope  that  that  retribution  may  be  averted. 

Then,  in  regard  to  John's  words,  of  course  as  they 
stand  they  are  simply  the  parting  benediction  with 
which  he  takes  leave  of  his  readers;  but  it  is  fitting 
that  the  Book  of  which  they  are  the  close  should  seal 
up  the  canon,  because  it  stands  as  the  one  prophetic 
book  of  the  New  Testament,  and  so  reaches  forward 
into  the  coming  ages,  even  to  the  consummation  of  all 
things.  And  just  as  Christ  in  His  Ascension  was 
taken  from  them  whilst  His  hands  were  lifted  up  in 
the  act  of  blessing,  so  it  is  fitting  that  the  revelation 
of  which  He  is  the  centre  and  the  theme  should  part 
from  us  as  He  did,  shedding  with  its  final  words  the 
dew  of  benediction  on  our  upturned  heads. 

I  venture,  then,  to  look  at  these  significant  closing 
words  of  the  two  Testaments  as  conveying  the  spirit 
of  each,  and  suggesting  som.e  thoughts  about  the  con- 


364  MALACHI  [ch.  iv. 

trast  and  the  harmony  and  the  order  that  subsist 
between  them. 

I.  I  ask  you,  first,  to  notice  the  apparent  contrast 
and  the  real  harmony  and  unity  of  these  two  texts. 

'  Lest  I  come  and  smite  the  land  with  a  curse.'  That 
last  awful  word  does  not  convey,  in  the  original,  quite 
the  idea  of  our  English  word  'curse.'  It  refers  to  a 
somewhat  singular  institution  in  the  Mosaic  Law 
according  to  which  things  devoted,  in  a  certain  sense, 
to  God  were  deprived  of  life.  And  the  reference 
historically  is  to  the  judgments  that  were  inflicted 
upon  the  nations  that  occupied  the  land  before  the 
Israelitish  invasion,  those  Canaanites  and  others  who 
were  put  under  '  the  ban '  and  devoted  to  utter  destruc- 
tion. So,  says  my  text,  Israel,  which  has  stepped  into 
their  places,  may  bring  down  upon  its  head  the  same 
devastation ;  and  as  they  were  swept  off  the  face  of 
the  land  that  they  had  polluted  with  their  iniquities, 
so  an  apostate  and  God-forgetting  Judah  may  again 
experience  the  same  utter  destruction  falling  upon 
them.  If  instead  of  the  word  'curse'  we  were  to 
substitute  the  word  'destruction,'  we  should  get  the 
true  idea  of  the  passage. 

And  the  thought  that  I  want  to  insist  upon  is  this, 
that  here  we  have  distinctly  gathered  up  the  whole 
spirit  of  millenniums  of  divine  revelation,  all  of  which 
declare  this  one  thing,  that  as  certainly  as  there  is  a 
God,  every  transgression  and  disobedience  receives, 
and  must  receive,  its  just  recompense  of  reward. 

That  is  the  spirit  of  law,  for  law  has  nothing  to  say, 
except,  'Do  this,  and  thou  shalt  live;  do  not  this,  and 
thou  shalt  die.' 

And  then  turn  to  the  other.  '  The  grace  of  our  Lord 
Jesus  Christ  be  with  you  all.'    What  has  become  of 


V.6]  THE  LAST  WOUDS  865 

the  thunder?  All  melted  into  dewy  rain  of  love  and 
pity  and  compassion.  Grace  is  love  that  stoops ;  grace 
is  love  that  foregoes  its  claims,  and  forgives  sins 
against  itself.  Grace  is  love  that  imparts,  and  this 
grace,  thus  stooping,  thus  pardoning,  thus  bestowing, 
is  a  universal  gift.  The  Apostolic  benediction  is  the 
declaration  of  the  divine  purpose,  and  the  inmost 
heart  and  loftiest  meaning  of  all  the  words  which 
from  the  beginning  God  hath  spoken  is  that  His  con- 
descending, pardoning,  self-bestowing  mercy  may  fall 
upon  all  hearts,  and  gladden  every  soul. 

So  there  seems  to  emerge,  and  there  is,  a  very  real 
and  a  very  significant  contrast.  'I  come  and  smite 
the  earth  with  a  curse '  sounds  strangely  unlike  '  The 
grace  of  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ  be  with  you  all.*  And, 
of  course,  in  this  generation  there  is  a  strong  tendency 
to  dwell  upon  that  contrast  and  to  exaggerate  it,  and 
to  assert  that  the  more  recent  has  antiquated  the 
more  ancient,  and  that  now  the  day  when  we  have  to 
think  of  and  to  dread  the  curse  that  smites  the  earth 
is  past,  '  because  the  true  Light  now  shineth.' 

So  I  ask  you  to  notice  that  beneath  this  apparent 
contrast  there  is  a  real  harmony,  and  that  these  two 
utterances,  though  t bey  seem  to  be  so  diverse,  are 
quite  consistent  at  bottom,  and  must  both  be  taken 
into  account  if  we  would  grasp  the  whole  truth.  For, 
as  a  matter  of  fact,  nowhere  are  there  more  tender 
utterances  and  sweeter  revelations  of  a  divine  mercy 
than  in  that  ancient  law  with  its  attendant  prophets. 
And  as  a  matter  of  fact,  nowhere,  through  all  the 
thunderings  and  lightnings  of  Sinai,  are  there  such 
solemn  words  of  retribution  as  dropped  from  the  lips 
of  the  Incarnate  Love.  There  is  nothing  anywhere  so 
dreadful  as  Christ's  own  words  about  what  comes,  and 


866  MALACHI  [ch.  rr. 

must  come,  to  sinful  men.  Is  there  any  depth  of  dark- 
ness in  the  Old  Testament  teaching  of  retribution  half 
as  deep,  half  as  black,  and  as  terrible,  as  the  gulf  that 
Christ  opens  at  your  feet  and  mine?  Is  there  any- 
thing so  awful  as  the  threatenings  of  Infinite  Love  ? 

And  the  same  blending  of  the  widest  proclamation 
of,  and  the  most  perfect  rejoicing  confidence  in,  the 
universal  and  all-forgiving  love  of  God,  with  the  teach- 
ing of  the  sharpest  retribution,  lies  in  the  writings  of 
this  very  Apostle  about  whose  words  I  am  speaking. 
There  are  nowhere  in  Scripture  more  solemn  pictures 
than  those  in  that  book  of  the  Apocalypse,  of  the  in- 
evitable consequences  of  departure  from  the  love  and 
the  faith  of  God,  and  John,  the  Apostle  of  love,  is 
the  preacher  of  judgment  as  none  of  the  other  writers 
of  the  New  Testament  are. 

Such  is  the  fact,  and  there  is  a  necessity  for  it. 
There  must  be  this  blending;  for  if  you  take  away 
from  yt)ur  conception  of  God  the  absolute  holiness 
which  hates  sin,  and  the  rigid  righteousness  which 
apportions  to  all  evil  its  bitter  fruits,  you  have  left 
a  maimed  God  that  has  not  power  to  love  but  is  no- 
thing but  weak,  good-natured  indulgence.  Impunity 
is  not  mercy,  and  punishment  is  never  the  negation  of 
perfect  love,  but  rather,  if  you  destroy  the  one  you 
hopelessly  maim  the  other.  The  two  halves  are 
needed  in  order  to  give  full  emphasis  to  either.  Each 
note  alone  is  untrue ;  blended,  they  make  the  perfect 
chord. 

II.  And  now,  let  me  ask  you  to  look  with  me  at 
another  point,  and  that  is,  the  relation  of  the  grace  to 
the  punishment. 

Is  it  not  love  which  proclaims  judgment?  Are  not 
the    words  of    my  first  text,  if    you  take  them  aU, 


V.  6]  THE  LAST  WORDS  867 

merciful,  however  they  wear  a  surface  of  threaten- 
ing? 'Lest  I  come.'  Then  He  speaks  that  He  may 
not  come,  and  declares  the  issue  of  sin  in  order  that 
that  issue  may  never  need  to  be  experienced  by  us 
that  listen  to  Him.  Brethren!  both  in  regard  to  the 
Bible  and  in  regard  to  human  ministrations  of  the 
Gospel,  it  is  all-important,  as  it  seems  to  me  at  present, 
to  insist  that  it  is  the  cruellest  kindness  to  keep  back 
the  threatenings  for  fear  of  darkening  the  grace ;  and 
that,  on  the  other  hand,  it  is  the  truest  tenderness  to 
warn  and  to  proclaim  them.  It  is  love  that  threatens ; 
it  is  mercy  to  tell  us  that  the  wrath  will  come. 

And  just  as  one  relation  between  the  grace  and  the 
retribution  is  that  the  proclamation  of  the  retribution 
is  the  work  of  the  grace,  so  there  is  another  relation — 
the  grace  is  manifested  in  bearing  the  punishment, 
and  in  bearing  it  away  by  bearing  it.  Oh !  there  is  no 
adequate  measure  of  what  the  grace  of  the  Lord  Jesus 
Christ  is  except  the  measure  of  the  smiting  destruc- 
tion from  which  He  frees  us.  It  is  because  every 
transgression  receives  its  just  recompense  of  reward, 
because  the  wages  of  sin  is  death,  because  God  cannot 
but  hate  and  punish  the  evil,  that  we  get  our  truest 
standard  of  what  Christ's  love  is  to  every  soul  of  us. 
For  on  Him  have  met  all  the  converging  rays  of  the 
divine  retribution,  and  burnt  the  penal  fire  into  His 
very  heart.  He  has  come  between  every  one  of  us,  if 
we  will,  and  that  certain  incidence  of  retribution  for 
our  evil,  taking  upon  Himself  the  whole  burden  of  our 
sin  and  of  our  guilt,  and  bearing  that  awful  death 
which  consists  not  in  the  mere  dissolution  of  the  tie 
between  soul  and  body,  but  in  the  separation  of  the 
conscious  spirit  from  God,  in  order  that  we  may  stand 
peaceful,  serene,  untouched,  when  the  hail  and  the  fire 


368  MALACHI  [ch.  iv. 

of  the  divine  judgment  are  falling  from  the  heavens 
and  running  along  the  earth.  The  grace  depends  for 
all  our  conceptions  of  its  glory,  its  tenderness,  and  its 
depth,  on  our  estimate  of  the  wrath  from  which  it 
delivers. 

So,  dear  brethren,  remember,  if  you  tamper  with 
the  one  you  destroy  the  other ;  if  there  be  no  fearful 
judgment  from  which  men  need  to  be  delivered,  Christ 
has  borne  nothing  for  us  that  entitles  Him  to  demand  our 
hearts ;  and  all  the  ascriptions  of  praise  and  adoration 
to  Him,  and  all  the  surrender  of  loving  hearts,  in  utter 
self-abandonment,  to  Him  that  has  borne  the  curse  for 
us,  fade  and  are  silent.  If  you  strike  out  the  truth  of 
Christ's  bearing  the  results  of  sin  from  your  theology, 
you  do  not  thereby  exalt,  but  you  fatally  lower  the 
love;  and  in  the  interests  of  the  loftiest  conceptions 
of  a  divine  lovingkindness  and  mercy  that  ever  have 
blessed  the  world,  I  beseech  you,  be  on  your  guard 
against*  all  teachings  that  diminish  the  sinfulness  of 
sin,  and  that  ask  again  the  question  which  first  of  all 
came  from  lips  that  do  not  commend  it  to  us — 'Hath 
God  said  ? '  or  advance  to  the  assertion — '  Ye  shall  not 
surely  die.'  If  '  I  come  to  smite  the  earth  with  a  curse ' 
ceases  to  be  a  truth  to  you,  *the  grace  of  our  Lord 
Jesus  Christ '  will  fade  away  for  you  likewise. 

III.  Now,  still  further,  let  me  ask  you  to  consider, 
lastly,  the  alternative  which  these  texts  open  for  us. 

I  believe  that  the  order  in  which  they  stand  in 
Scripture  is  the  order  in  which  men  generally  come  to 
believe  them,  and  to  feel  them.  I  am  old-fashioned 
enough  and  narrow  enough  to  believe  in  conversion ; 
and  to  believe  further  that,  as  a  rule,  the  course 
through  which  the  soul  passes  from  darkness  into 
light  is  the  course  which  divine  revelation  took :  first, 


V.6]  THE  LAST  WORDS  869 

the  unveiling  of  sin  and  its  issues,  and  then  the  glad 
leaping  up  of  the  trustful  heart  to  the  conception  of 
redeeming  grace. 

But  what  I  seek  briefly  to  suggest  now  is,  not  only 
the  order  of  manifestation  as  brought  out  in  these 
words,  but  also  the  alternative  which  they  present  to 
us,  one  branch  or  other  of  which  every  soul  of  you 
will  have  to  experience.  You  must  have  either  the 
destruction  or  the  grace.  And,  more  wonderful  still, 
the  same  coming  of  the  same  Lord  will  be  to  one 
man  the  destruction,  and  to  another  the  manifesta- 
tion and  reception  of  His  perfect  grace.  As  it  was 
in  the  Lord's  first  coming,  'He  is  set  for  the  rise 
and  the  fall  of  many  in  Israel.'  The  same  heat 
softens  some  substances  and  bakes  others  into  hard- 
ness. A  bit  of  wax  and  a  bit  of  clay  put  into  the 
same  fire — one  becomes  liquefied  and  the  other  solidi- 
fied. The  same  light  is  joy  to  one  eye  and  torture 
to  another.  The  same  pillar  of  cloud  was  light  to 
the  hosts  of  Israel,  and  darkness  and  dismay  to  the 
armies  of  Egypt.  The  same  Gospel  is  'a  savour  of 
life  unto  life,  or  of  death  unto  death,'  by  the  giving 
forth  of  the  same  influences  killing  the  one  and 
reviving  the  other;  the  same  Christ  is  a  Stone  to 
build  upon  or  a  Stone  of  stumbling ;  and  when  He 
Cometh  at  the  last,  Prince,  King,  Judge,  to  you  and 
me,  His  coming  shall  be  prepared  as  the  morning; 
and  ye  'shall  have  a  song  as  when  one  cometh  with 
a  pipe  to  the  mountain  of  the  Lord ' ;  or  else  it  shall 
be  a  day  of  darkness  and  not  of  light.  He  comes  to 
me,  to  you;  He  comes  to  smite  or  He  comes  to 
glorify. 

Oh,  brethren!  do  not  believe  that  God's  threaten- 
ings  are  wind  and  words;    do  not  let  teachings  that 

2  A 


370  MALACHI  [oh.  iv. 

sap  the  very  foundations  of  morality  and  eat  all  the 
power  out  of  the  Gospel  persuade  you  that  the  solemn 
words,  '  The  soul  that  sinneth  it  shall  die,'  are  not 
simple  verity. 

And  then,  my  brethren,  oh !  then,  do  you  turn  your- 
selves to  that  dear  Lord  whose  grace  is  magnified  in 
this  most  chiefly,  that  'He  hath  borne  our  sins  and 
carried  our  sorrows';  and  taking  Him  for  your 
Saviour,  your  King,  your  Shield,  your  All,  when  He 
Cometh  it  will  be  life  to  you ;  and  the  grace  that  He 
imparts  will  be  heaven  for  ever  more. 


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DATE  DUE 


.B«r-5rW'^ 


-JOtlMJi* 


CAYLORD 


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